WISE, VA— The UVA Wise volleyball team couldn't stay afloat on Friday's matchup against the Anderson Trojans, dropping the match 3-1 (25-13, 20-25, 25-11, 25-14).
 
The UVA Wise Cavaliers (2-6, 0-3 SAC) started off strong right out the gate, with an ace to snag the first point by Rylee Waye. That early momentum carried the team to get 6 points before Anderson (6-3, 1-0 SAC) could barely answer with two points of their own. That momentum came to an abrupt stop when the Trojans pushed back, provoking a few attack errors on the Cavs side resulting in a tie frame. Each side fought frame by frame until the Trojans utilized their big hitter Sadie Kluner to grab seven consecutive points while keeping the Cavs at 10 points. Even though the Cavs garnered a few points by Trojan error and by a Cassidy Farley kill — they couldn't keep up, and lost the set 25-13.
 
The Cavs came out strong once again in the second set, with a quick 3-0 score. As shown in the first set, Anderson knew how to push back and did the same in this set — quickly evening out the score by a few key kills from Trojan Kaelyn Grimm. At this point in the set, Anderson seemed to pull away from the Cavs with three consecutive kills by Madison Roy, Hannah Nuff, and Noelle Knutsen. But senior Kelsey Green from the Cavs had other plans — securing a triple sequence of aces that knocked Anderson off their feet each time. With a tied score at 13, the Trojans and the Cavs were head to head until the 19th point when Kaylee Scarce produced a kill that started a Cavs rally. Cana Davidson produced back-to-back aces, Morgan Blevins had a kill, and Cassidy Farley produced two of her own to end the set in UVA Wise's favor 25-20.
 
In this set, the Trojans were able to strike first and pulled away quite early in the set. Anderson took control with multiple kills by Liliana Kinder and Tabitha Wheeling to keep the lead for the whole set, only allowing the Cavs 11 points. The Trojans were able to keep the lead and win the set 25-11.
 
In the fourth and final set, Anderson's SAC Astroturf Offensive Player of the Week Regan Duty made her appearance known and was the author of many kills that the Cav's defense couldn't handle. Like the previous set, Anderson took charge of the set indefinitely and didn't let UVA Wise score past 14 points, winning by a margin of 11.
 
Leaders of the match include Anderson's Jaelyn Grimm with 11 kills, UVA Wise's Kelsey Green with three aces, Anderson's Madison Roy with a record-number 44 assists, UVA Wise's Cassidy Farley and Anderson's Regan Duty with two blocks apiece, and Anderson's Meghan DeVaux with 18 digs.
 
Next, the UVA Wise volleyball team will be home again at the David J. Prior Convocation Center, where they will face the Newberry Wolves on Sept. 18 at 2:00 p.m.
 
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