CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Royals (22-8) opened Conference Carolinas Tournament play this evening against Limestone College defeating the Saints 3-2 to advance to the semifinal round against Erskine College. Queens University of Charlotte won by scores of 25-17, 22-25, 25-20, 21-25 and 16-14. Limestone ends its season at 15-19 overall.

Brittany Harvey (Matthews, N.C., Sun Valley ) paced the Royals with 17 kills on the night. Keri Kemp (Lake Mary, Fla., Lake Mary) and Anna Gibbs (Hickory, N.C., Hickory) followed with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Taylor Riley (Lynchburg, Va., E.C. Glass) led Queens with 25 assists, while Avery Moore (Arlington, Texas, Lamar) dished out 23. Harvey also led her team with six total blocks. Jocelyn Kellinger (Roanoke, Va., Cave Spring) collected 20 digs on the back line alongside Brittney Barren's (Ham Lake, Minn., Blaine) 12 digs.

Jordan Preville led the Saints with 13 kills, while Danielle Siebert tallied a game-high 39 assists. Limestone notched 85 digs as a team led by Hollie Dawson who finished the game with 25. Rebecca Kerrison tallied 19, while Siebert and Preville added 14 and 12, repectively.

The Royals built a 13-10 lead on a 7-3 run before the Saints pushed four points to go ahead 14-13 in the deciding game. A service error by Limestone tied the game up at 14-14 and returned the serve to Queens. The Saint's then ended the game with two attack errors as Queens took the win advancing to the next round of conference play. The lead change was the fourth of the set.

Queens strung together a number of spurts in the first set en route to the 25-17 win. A 6-6 tie early in the set was as close as Limestone got to taking over the lead as Queens scored four points right after and never let the Saints get close again. Keri Kemp tallied two kills in the short run.

The second game was all Limestone until the Royals took over the lead for a short bit after Barren tied the game at 7-7. Queens tallied five points in a row to make the score 11-8. The Saints then had a run of their own regaining control of the set and holding out for the 25-22 win. Kemp caught fire late putting down two kills in a row, but a timeout slowed Queens' momentum allowing Limestone to tie the match at 1-1.

Limestone led early in the third, but the Royals held steady waiting patiently for the game to come to them. A block error by the Saints gave a 5-4 lead to Queens and the Royals never looked back. After tying the game up at 4-4, Queens reeled off a 6-2 run forcing the first timeout of the set from Limestone. Queens then stretched their lead even more out of the break going up by as much as 10, 21-11. The Saints then made a late run closing the gap to five, but a Harvey kill sealed the 2-1 go ahead.

The fourth set saw 13 ties before Limestone took the final lead. After going up 21-19, a timeout was called by Queens to regroup. Out of the break, a few errors from the home team helped the Saints stretch the game to set five.

The Royals will return to the court on Friday, November 11 to take on Erskine College in “The Oven.”