NEWBERRY, S.C. - The Newberry College volleyball team hosted the Belmont Abbey Crusaders on Wednesday night in a break from South Atlantic Conference competition. This match marked only the second meeting between the two teams, with Newberry sweeping the first one last season in Belmont, N.C. Newberry (13-9, 3-4 SAC) took care of Belmont Abbey (2-13) again this season, this time in four sets by scores of 25-12, 25-14, 19-25, 25-17.

Newberry opened the match in dominant form and pulled ahead of the Crusaders early. Kara Harris (Grandview, Texas) and Kember Lichtie (Amarillo, Texas) each served well for Newberry, sending the team on runs and quickly putting the set out of reach. Lichtie came up with a kill off a set from Blair Browning (New Lexington, Ohio) on set point to seal the opener.

Similarly to the first, the second set was all Newberry as well. Lindsey Hollingsworth (Charleston, S.C.) opened the set by winning six consecutive points off her serve. With a big opening lead, Newberry would settle to exchange points with Belmont Abbey for the majority of the set. Lorena Maia (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) created another Newberry run late in the set by way of 2 service aces and a couple Crusader attack errors.

Belmont Abbey attacked more crisply in the third set and prevented Newberry from achieving the sweep. After attacking with a -.107 percentage in the first two sets, the Crusaders achieved a .370 third-set attacking percentage to beat Newberry.

Newberry managed to limit the Belmont Abbey attackers in the fourth set and reduced the Crusaders back down to a .147 percentage. Newberry took the lead early and never looked back, surrendering no ties or lead changes. Newberry went on a late six-point run with Lichtie serving and won the fourth and final set handily.

Lorena Maia claimed another piece of Newberry College history, this time breaking the record for career kills. Maia now has 1,068 kills in her career, enough to surpass Cara Coleman's total set in 2007. Maia is also the record holder for career service aces at Newberry College.

Newberry spread out its attacks across several players in the match. Dani Hroblak (Lake Wylie, S.C.) paced the scarlet and gray with 9 kills, followed by Lichtie and Harris with 8 apiece. Browning did the majority of the setting on the evening, accumulating 27 kills.

Newberry will return to conference play this weekend with a match at Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday, October 10.