NEWBERRY, S.C. � The Newberry College volleyball suffered its first loss of the season at the hands of Catawba College 3-1 (31-33, 32-30, 30-26, 30-22).  The match was the conference opener for both teams.  Newberry falls to 6-1 while Catawba improves to 13-1. 

Newberry started off hot jumping out to an early 8-2 lead.  Catawba responded with a 12-6 run to tie the game at 14-all.  The two teams would exchange points seeing the game�s second tie at 20-20.  With the score tied again at 28, Catawba took the next point to get to its first game point at 29-28.  Despite sitting at game point on three occasions, Catawba could not finish off the home side.  Down 31-30 and facing defeat, Newberry rallied off three consecutive points to take game one by the score of 33-31.

Game two had even more excitement than the first.  After taking an early 10-2 lead, Catawba seemed poised to draw even in the match.  Catawba was able to stretch their advantage to 9 points when they took a 27-18 lead.  However, Newberry had something left in their tanks.  Behind the good serving of sophomore Lorena Maia (Belo Horizonte, Brazil), Newberry went on an 11-2 run to tie the score at 29, which also included fending off a Catawba game point.  Catawba would have another possible game point at 30-29, but Newberry battled to tie the game at 30.  However, Catawba took finished off the game scoring the next two points to tie the match at a game each.

The neck and neck battle carried over into the third game.  With the scoreboard reading 6-6, the game had already seen six ties.  The game continued in the back and forth momentum seeing 13 ties, the last of which coming at 24-24.  At this point, Catawba took a 26-24 lead which would prove be all they need as they finish off the third game with a 6-2 run winning by the score of 30-26.

The fourth game seemed destined for extra points as the teams traded points at the start.  The score was tied seven times in the fourth game.  At 14-14, Catawba began to pull away by taking a three point lead.  That would be as close as Newberry would get.  Catawba would eventually stretch the lead to 8 points and take game four by the score of 30-22. 

Catawba was lead both offensively and defensively by junior Melissa Griffith who had 25 kills and 22 digs.  Griffith also hit .524 on the evening.  Junior Melissa Powers had 21 kills and swung an impressive .356 in the match.  Catawba�s offense ran off of senior Andi Henderson�s 62 assists.  Sophomore Nikki Bozick contributed defensively with 21 digs.  Senior Jessica Cleary tied a match high with 4 aces on the night.

Kara Harris (Grandview, Texas) led the Newberry offense with 13 kills and contributed defensively with 15 digs.  Priscila Sales (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) and Laurie Barman (Madison, Wisc.) had 12 and 11 kills, respectively.  Nadia Andrade (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) was tied for a high game with 22 digs.  Maia tied the game high with 4 aces while Fernanda Frey (Sao Paolo, Brazil) added 3 more. 

Newberry College falls for the first time under the tutelage of head coach Matt Sonnichsen and sits at 0-1 in the conference.  Newberry will try even their conference record tomorrow afternoon when they host Lenoir-Rhyne at 1 pm. 

Catawba will go for 10 wins in a row when they host conference foe Tusculum College tomorrow afternoon at 1 pm.