HICKORY, N.C. - The Newberry Wolves fought back from two sets down in their South Atlantic Conference opener at Lenoir-Rhyne, but the host Bears took the decisive fifth set to win 3-2 (25-20, 25-23, 19-25, 19-25, 15-12) in Shuford Gym on Friday night.

With the loss, Newberry falls to 5-5 overall and 0-1 in league play entering Saturday's match at Brevard at 2 p.m.

Newberry had a hard time hitting around the Bears' block as the hosts recorded 19 blocks in the match and Newberry hit .097. Samantha Parrish (Angola, Ind.) had a double-double with 15 kills and 16 digs and Lauren Prachar (Fort Wayne, Ind.) had a 14-kill, 18-dig double-double. Blair Browning (New Lexington, Ohio) recorded a double-double as well, passing out 45 assists and earning 10 digs. Elayni Stokes (Houston, Texas) had team highs with 25 digs and three service aces.

The scarlet and gray hit .000 in each of the first two sets. Newberry fell behind early in the first set and was unable to recover and led by as many as three midway through the second set before L-R closed the set on a 5-3 run to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

Newberry responded with a strong service game in the second set, notching seven aces and following four kills from Prachar to cut the Bears' advantage to 2-1. The Wolves were able to avoid L-R's block in the third and put up four blocks of their own and had Parrish notch an error-free four kills in the set to send the match to the decisive fifth set.

The fifth set was a nailbiter, with the teams still tied as late as 11-all, but L-R scored four of the last five points and put the match away on the block.