Box Score WISE, Va. – The UVa-Wise women's volleyball team earned a hard-fought five-set win Friday night at the David J. Prior Convocation Center over Urbana University. With the 3-2 (25-21, 25-21, 24-26, 20-25, 15-12) win over the Blue Knights (7-12, 1-6 MEC), the Cavaliers improve to 6-1 in Mountain East Conference play and 11-9 overall.
 
The Cavs improved their home record to 6-1 on the season and have now won eight of their past nine matches in Wise spanning back to Oct. 24 of last year.
 
UVa-Wise jumped out to a two set to none lead on the visiting Blue Knights by claiming both the first and second sets 25-21 behind strong hitting in both sets. The Cavs hit .275 in the first and .294 in the second before being slowed down by Urbana in the third set.
 
Junior middle blocker Lindsey Tucker took a hard fall into the net poll after a kill at the 20-16 mark of the first set. Tucker appeared to have injured her knee and had to be helped up off of the floor, the junior would not return for the rest of the match.
 
Despite taking an early 10-5 lead in the third set, the Cavs were unable to maintain the advantage and Urbana tied up the set at 18 all. Both teams went back and forth before being tied at 24, from there the Blue Knights claimed the next two points and the third set (26-24). The Cavs were kept to an attack percentage of .000 in the set.
 
The fourth set proved to be much different than the previous two sets as Urbana took a 15-8 lead on UVa-Wise. The Cavs were outplayed the entire set as the Blue Knights made 29 digs in the stanza and defeated the Cavs 25-20.
 
Several errors by Urbana to begin the fifth set and a kill by junior outside hitter Karley Allen gave the Cavs an early 5-1 lead. The Blue Knights would come back though and make it a one-point game at 5-4 before the Cavs grabbed another commanding lead at 10-5. UVa-Wise held onto their lead and at 13-12 the Cavs got a point off of an Urbana attack error before Allen made a kill, assisted by freshman setter Chandler Rouse, to clinch the final set and the match.
 
The Cavs hit .165 for the match and recorded 63 total kills as opposed to an attack percentage of .121 by the Blue Knights and 57 total kills. Digs were plenty in the match as UVa-Wise made an astounding 109 digs to go along with 11 total team blocks. Urbana was also impressive with 101 digs and 12 total team blocks.
 
Several Cavs had career nights with Allen registering a new career-high in kills with 27 and tying her career-high in digs with 30. Senior outside hitter Kelsey Smith tallied a career-high 18 digs, while Rouse also had a career-high in digs with 15. Junior defensive specialist Erin Anderson tied her career-high in digs (22) as freshman outside hitter Ciara Kain recorded 14 kills, one shy of her career-high. Freshman middle blocker Amanda Auxier and junior middle blocker Santana Bishop both had career-highs in block assists, Auxier recorded eight while Bishop added seven.
 
Urbana was led by Katlynn Dunlap who registered 17 kills and 21 digs, while Brianna Burkhalter had 24 digs and Aleese Butler earned seven block assists.
 
The Cavs will have a quick turnaround as they continue conference play tomorrow morning, hosting Notre Dame College in less than 12 hours at 10 a.m.
 
Admission to all home volleyball matches this season is free for everybody.
 
Both live streaming video and live stats for Saturday's match can be found by clicking the links and also by visiting the 2015 women's volleyball schedule on uvawisecavs.com.
 
Following this tomorrow's match UVa-Wise will step out of league play and travel to Bluefield, West Virginia, to take on Bluefield State Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
 
Visit uvawisecavs.com for all Cavalier volleyball news, statistics, complete schedule and more.