WISE – An exciting first set comeback sparked the UVA Wise volleyball team to complete the 3-0 sweep of Newberry Saturday afternoon on the Quillen Court.
With the win, the Highland Cavaliers improve to 9-9 on the season and 3-6 in South Atlantic Conference play, marking their best start in the SAC since joining the conference in 2019 and their best conference start since 2016.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP
Result: UVA Wise 3, Newberry 0
Records: UVA Wise (9-9, 3-6 SAC), Newberry (4-9, 1-7 SAC)
Location: Wise, VA | The Quillen Court in the David J. Prior Convocation Center.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Highland Cavaliers were playing their third match in five days and came into the match having lost this week to Lincoln Memorial and Mars Hill with the feeling that those were lost opportunities. Newberry made the trip up from Middlesboro, Kentucky, after having lost 3-1 at LMU Friday evening.
- The Wolves came out determinedly and shot out to the 8-3 lead. The Cavaliers made efforts to cut into the lead, but could not get closer than three points. After taking the 18-11 lead following a kill by Gabby Warren, the Cavs got the hot hand and rolled off an 8-2 run to cut the lead to 20-19 on a service ace from
Kaylee Scarce. They then completed the comeback five rallies later with the kill by
Cassidy Farley off the set by
Lily Gutierrez. Newberry's coaching staff called a timeout to try to get the situation under control, but came out of the timeout with an attack error and a attack blocked by Farley and
Serina Petersen and the Cavs took the 24-22 lead. With the two point cushion, a kill by Newberry's Kate Brown cut the lead to one before the kill by
Morgan Blevins ended the set with the Cavs on top 25-23.
- After the comeback, Newberry was not the same team as the Cavs went out to the 8-1 lead in the second set and were never really challenged for the rest of the frame. The closest the Wolves came was at 9-4 and 19-13, but the Cavs hit .182 in the set and held the Wolves to .000 hitting in UVA Wise's 25-15 win.
- The third set was harder-fought, with eight ties and five lead changes. With the set tied at 12-12 following a block by Farley and
Morgan Blevins, a kill by Petersen gave the Cavs the lead for good as they went on to claim the 25-21 set win and the 3-0 sweep.
GETTING WISE
- The Cavs hit .194 for the contest, which is their highest attack percentage of the season in conference matches. The 12.0 blocks by the team are the second highest of the season after the 16.0 vs. Coker on Sept. 27.
- 13 kills by Petersen and a double-double (ten kills, eleven digs) by Scarce led the team.
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Piper Suddeth also had a double-double, her third straight and seventh of the season, with 16 assists and 13 digs.
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Abigail Curtis led the team in digs with 14.
- Farley had nine blocks to lead all players.
ABOUT NEWBERRY
- The Wolves were led by Emma Christensen's seven kills.
- Two Newberry players had double-digit digs – Katy Morrison with eleven and Brown with ten.
- Giovanna Ravanhani had 12 assists, while Annie Dill added nine.
UP NEXT
UVA Wise has three matches next week. They travel to Lenoir-Rhyne for a Monday match with the Bears before returning home to host Tusculum on Wednesday and Wingate Friday evening. Monday's match is scheduled for 6 p.m., while Wednesday's match is set for 7 p.m. and first serve Friday set for 6 p.m.
