NEWBERRY - The Newberry Wolves won their third straight South Atlantic Conference match by taking out the Lenoir-Rhyne Bears with a 3-1 (25-23, 26-28, 25-21, 25-18) victory to open Homecoming weekend festivities in Eleazer Arena on Friday night.

Newberry moves to 11-9 overall and 5-5 in SAC play entering Saturday's 1 p.m. home match against Brevard. Lenoir-Rhyne is now 11-6 overall and 6-3 in the league and will play at Anderson tomorrow.

Samantha Parrish (Angola, Ind.) hit .281 in the match with 22 kills and 13 digs, while Lauren Prachar (Fort Wayne, Ind.) had a double-double with 11 kills and 18 digs to go with four service aces. Elayni Stokes (Houston, Texas) led the Wolves with 20 digs, while senior Blair Browning (New Lexington, Ohio) passed out 51 assists.

Jessica King (Los Angeles, Calif.) had nine kills and Madison Schultz (Decatur, Ind.) and Amanda Soper (Simi Valley, Calif.) each put away seven kills.

L-R started the match on a hot streak with the first three points and the Wolves battled back to tie the opening set at 7-all. The Bears roared out to a four point advantage at 16-12, and were holding onto that same advantage at 21-17 when they called timeout. After a service error out of the timeout, Lisa Ross (Bowling Green, Ky.) stayed on serve for six straight points, with an ace and kills and a block from Prachar and King put Newberry in the lead at 23-22. The Wolves had tow chances at set point, and a Parrish kill made it a 25-23 first set comeback win. Parrish had seven kills in the set and Prachar had five. Newberry hit .306 in the set to L-R's .324.

In the second set, the Bears once again jumped out to an early advantage at 4-0, but Prachar was able to stay on serve for eight straight points, aided by three consecutive aces to help the Wolves howl back to a 13-9 lead. A surge by the Bears allowed them to tie the set back up at 15-all, and neither squad could get back out to more than a two-point lead in the rest of the set. Newberry had set point at 24-22, but the Bears scored three straight to flip the script. The Wolves fought off L-R's set point twice before the Bears took a 28-26 set win to tie the match at 1-all. Parrish had nine kills in the set, which had 11 ties and four lead changes. L-R hit .390, while Newberry was limited to .205.

The Wolves had one of their best offensive sets in the third, hitting .455 with only one error on the way to the 25-21 set win. From an 11-all tie, Newberry surged to a 20-13 lead. Lenoir-Rhyne was able to narrow the deficit to four, but by then it was already at set point and Schultz' kill put Newberry up 2-1. Soper led Newberry in the set with five kills, while Schultz had four.

It was another tight set in the fourth, but when the Wolves saw the chance to put the game away, they took it. A King kill gave Newberry the 20-18 edge, and the sophomore then went to the service line for good, serving out five straight points with a dump kill from Browning putting the match away. Newberry hit .150 in the set, with King and Parrish each notching three kills. L-R hit only .060 in the final set.