NEWBERRY, S.C. - The Newberry College volleyball team moved into a tie for second place in the South Atlantic Conference Friday night by taking down the Tusculum Pioneers, 3-1 (25-18, 25-23, 19-25, 25-18).

Priscila Sales (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) earned yet another double-double Friday night with a match high 13 kills to go along with 11 digs and three aces. Lorena Maia (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) also did a fine job filling up the box score with 11 kills, six digs, 4.5 blocks and three aces. Brianna Blakely (Houston, Texas) led the scarlet and gray in assists with 31 and Nadia Andrade (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) was the digs leader with 16.

Brittney Oblinger (Belvidere, Ill.) was Tusculum's top performer with a team high 10 kills to go along with eight digs and four aces. Peyton Colcough (Manassas, Va.) led her team in assists with 21 while Erika Garcia (Dayton, Ohio) earned a match high 17 digs.

The opening set started out competitive as both teams came out to win. With the score tied at 11-all, Newberry went on a 7-1 run that gained a substantial lead over the opposition. From then on out, Newberry's defense held the Pioneers at bay as the hosts took the set, 25-18. Maia had a very efficient opening set with four kills, five digs and an attack percentage of .500.

Tusculum came out of the break fired up and gained a 5-1 lead in the second set. Despite the early setback, the scarlet and gray fought hard and tied the set at 10-all. Newberry then went on a 10-1 run that seemed to put Tusculum away. The Pioneers showed toughness down the stretch and gave Newberry fans a scare by bringing the deficit down to 24-23.

A fired up coach David Nicholson called a timeout to rally his team together. The timeout proved to be effective as Maia immediately earned a kill to win the set for NC, 25-23. It was a tough set for Newberry but Niki Hroblak (Lake Wylie, S.C.) and Kara Harris (Grandview, Texas) helped their team gain the set win. Hroblak earned a team high four kills while Harris earned three kills and an attack percentage of .750.

With a sense of desperation, Tusculum came out to an early 10-3 lead in the third set. Newberry did its best to hold off the strong Tusculum effort and even cut the lead down to four points. Unfortunatley, they could not bring themselves back into the set and lost, 19-25.

Newberry lost some momentum after the third set but refused to let Tusculum tie the match. The first half of the fourth set was as tight as could be as neither team could create anymore than a two-point lead. With the set tied at 15-all, the scarlet and gray pulled away on a 7-2 scoring run. That run helped Newberry win the match-clinching set, 25-18. The fourth set victory was a total team effort as NC put up superior numbers on offense and defense. They racked up the most digs in the set with 19 and also scored 11 kills, three more than the Pioneers.

With the win, the Newberry College volleyball team moves to 15-7 overall and 7-3 in the SAC. They will return to action this Saturday, October 25 to take on Mars Hill at 2 p.m. Tusculum will visit SAC leaders Wingate for a 5 p.m. start.