MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. – Sara Davis recorded a career-high 29 kills, hit .300 and added five total blocks to earn tournament most valuable player honors and help top seed Flagler College to a 3-2 (17-25, 25-19, 25-13, 24-26, 15-13) win over No. 3 seed Armstrong State University in a Peach Belt Conference Tournament championship match Sunday afternoon at the Centennial Center.

Flagler won its 12^th match in a row to improve to 23-6 on the season. The Saints won its fifth conference tournament title as they defend their 2015 crown. This is the fourth time Flagler has been, or shared, the regular season title and won the tournament champion (2009-2010-2011). Armstrong State finishes the season with a 25-7 record and will more than likely receive one of the five at-large berths to the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional.

Automatic qualifiers to the eight-team regional are: Barton College (Conference Carolinas champion), Wingate University (South Atlantic Conference champion) and Flagler. The official announcement of the pairing will be aired on ncaa.com at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow (Nov. 21).

Kayla Norelli broke Flagler's single match digs record with 45 this afternoon. Casey Gnann held the record with 41 at Augusta State University on Nov. 2, 2012.

"This was another example of the great resiliency our team has shown throughout the second half of the season," said Matt Affolder, head volleyballl coach. "Armstrong State is a great team and played very well, putting a lot of stress on our defense and passers. Sara Davis just simply took over in the middle part of the match, and I think Kayla Norelli was dominant the entire weekend. Forty-five digs in a match, which was a big-time power match, shows what kind of a player Kayla is for our program. I love this team and I'm so happy and proud and excited for them that they earned another championship for Flagler College."  

Taja Valmyr recorded 16 kills and a season-high 22 digs for her eighth double-double of the season for the Saints. Both Norelli and Valmyr were selected to the all-tournament team. Ashley Cheewah added eight kills and seven total blocks while Megan Hooks contributed eight kills and four total blocks. Sarah Schark and Rachel Porada each collected 13 digs. Tara Savisky tied her career-high with 60 assists.   

Flagler's 114 digs in a match were its most this season.

Raegen Grooms led Armstrong State with 13 kills and 18 digs which helped her earn a place on the all-tournament team. Kim Brody and Autumn Mayo recorded 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Iva Scepanovic collected 26 digs while Carley Eiken recorded a double-double with 39 assists and 15 digs to go along with five total block and earned a spot on the all-tournament team.

The match was back and forth, but none more so than in the last two sets. In all, there were 27 ties and nine lead changes, but there were 16 ties and seven lead changes alone in the final two sets.

The Pirates held a 22-20 lead in the fourth set until a kill by Davis and a hitting error by Grooms tied the score at 22-all. Valmyr and Davis recorded consecutive kills to extend Flagler's run to 4-0 and a 24-22 lead. Armstrong broke the first match point with a kill by Grooms, and then Grooms added another to tie the score at 24. Consecutive hitting errors by Valmyr, the last was a double-block by Rachel Thompson and Eiken, gave the set and the momentum to Armstrong.

In the fifth set, with the score tied at 13, Flagler called a timeout. The resulting plays from that timeout was a kill by Valmyr to set up match point and then Davis spiked home the final point to win the match.

In Flagler's eight seasons in the PBC, it has won five tournament titles and four regular season crowns. The Saints have played in seven PBC tournament championship matches and six of those have been against the Pirates.

Members of the all-tournament team were: Taylor Stratton (USC  Aiken), Caroline Boone (Francis Marion), Raegan Grooms (Armstrong State), Carley Eiken (Armstrong State), Taja Valmyr (Flagler), Kayla Norelli (Flagler) and the MVP was Sara Davis (Flagler).

Flagler will hold a NCAA Tournament selection show tomorrow at 7:15 p.m. in the Solarium in Ponce Hall. The brackets will be released starting at 7:30 p.m.