WISE – The UVA Wise women's volleyball team celebrated Halloween night with a match that eerily resembled the first contest between in-state rival Emory & Henry which took place back in September.
The Cavs won that match in five sets. The intensity, competitiveness and rivalry spirit all mirrored that September classic. Only the result was different Tuesday night.
Emory & Henry defeated the Cavs in another five-set thriller 15-25, 26-24, 26-24, 11-25 and 15-12.
It was a career night for eight different Cavs in the loss. UVA Wise had eight different players reach or surpass 11 separate career highs.
Junior outside hitter Kaylee Scarce headlined the scoring with a career-high 23 kills. She did so on 64 swings for a .219 hitting percentage.
Sophomore Morgan Blankenship also had a big night in the scoring column with a career-high 16 kills on just 42 swings for a .322 hitting percentage. Blankenship aided UVA Wise's 10-block night as well, tying her career-high with four blocks.
Freshman Serina Petersen got in on the scoring action, too. She tied a career-best with nine kills, doing so on just 18 attempts with a lone error for a .444 hitting percentage.
UVA Wise dominated in the first set on the wings of seven service aces. Before Tuesday night, the Cavs had only more than seven aces in an entire match just three times this year. Overall, UVA Wise finished with a season-high 14 service aces as a team. The most in a match in program history since 2018.
Speaking of aces, numerous Cavs set career best marks in that category. UVA Wise had six different players record an ace, four of which recorded two or more.
Junior setter Lily Gutierrez led the way in the service game, tying her career-best with four aces. She also set career highs in assists with 30 and digs with 11.
Emory & Henry rebounded from the first-set loss in the second and third sets. Both were extremely close but the Wasps were able to pull out each by a score of 26-24.
Sophomore outside hitter Julissa Hopgood and senior outside hitter Brianna Hogan have been the go to hitters all season long for the Wasps. That didn't change Tuesday night as Hogan finished with 16 kills and Hopgood had 10. The only other Wasp in double figure scoring was junior outside hitter Sophie Kaiser with 12 kills.
In the third set, UVA Wise got back to where it started with good serving and a surgical offense. The Cavs battled to a 16-11 lead in the middle of the set. From there they never looked back, rattling off nine points in a row to force a fifth set.
Junior middle hitter Dannah Persinger was influential in the run with a pair of blocks. She combined with senior middle hitter Cassidy Farley, who played in her first match back from injury since Oct. 6, on both blocks.
Persinger would finish the night with seven blocks and Farley with four. Persinger also set a career-high mark Tuesday night with two service aces.
The fifth set was nothing but chaos. UVA Wise ran out to a quick 4-2 lead before Emory & Henry scored on four straight points to take a 6-4 lead.
The two teams would trade points back-and-forth until the Cavs trailed 10-9. From there Blankenship struck a kill, freshman defensive specialist Abigail Curtis dropped in a serve to contribute to her career-high total of three aces and then Scarce slammed one more kill home to give UVA Wise a 12-10 lead.
Emory & Henry head coach Pam Newberry used a timeout that proved to be the deciding break in the game. Her team responded with a 3-0 run before UVA Wise called timeout. Then Hogan scored another kill and the final point of the match ended as UVA Wise was unable to return a serve from junior middle blocker Samantha Worthy.
Despite the result, UVA Wise put together an impressive performance. Sophomore libero Kamryn Livingston tied her career high with 27 digs. Freshman outside hitter Riley Brandon also had a career-best in digs with five to go along with her nine kills.
On offense, UVA Wise dropped in 64 kills on 210 swings for a .214 hitting percentage. That's the Cavs' most efficient night of hitting in any conference match this season.
The Cavs fall to 9-13 (2-12 SAC) with the loss, while Emory & Henry improves to 9-15 (5-9 SAC) with the win.
UVA Wise will hit the road for one final away match this season to face Limestone on Friday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m.
