NEWBERRY - The Newberry Wolves pushed the 25th-ranked Armstrong Pirates to the edge Saturday afternoon but could not complete an upset win, falling in five sets (12-25, 25-22, 17-25, 25-23, 15-6) in Eleazer Arena.

Newberry is now 10-4 on the season, while Armstrong maintains its undefeated mark at 13-0. Newberry travels to Anderson on Tuesday, Catawba on Friday and Queens on Saturday for a trio of road South Atlantic Conference matches next week.

"We had a great opportunity to have a top 25 program in our arena and get a win today and I felt that we played pretty well in sets two and four even though we lost those, and gave ourselves a chance to win the match," head coach Todd Hay said. "Set five was not a good set for us, as our passing broke down. Overall on the day, I thought our play was still pretty good. We blocked well and thatkept us in a lot of points. Now we have to regroup, learn from our mistakes and execute on this tough road trip coming up."

Samantha Parrish (Angola, Ind.) had another double-double with 12 kills and 16 digs, while also putting up two solo blocks. Elayni Stokes (Houston, Texas) had a fantastic match in the back row with 28 digs to lead both teams.

In the middle, Jessica King (Los Angeles, Calif.) hit .412 with nine kills and three blocks, while Alexus Horton (Austin, Texas) hit .312 with seven kills and five blocks. Logan Hayward (Sylvania, Ohio) had nine kills, Holly Brisson (Lumberton, N.C.) hat eight kills and four blocks and Amanda Soper (Simi Valley, Calif.) had six kills and four blocks.

The Wolves came out to a blistering start in the first set, hitting .346 with 11 kills to only two errors. Newberry powered its way to a 25-12 win in the set over a shellshocked Armstrong squad. Brisson and King had three kills each to lead the Wolves, who also benefitted from 10 Armstrong errors.

The Pirates went on a six point run early in the second set to go up by four points, but the Wolves were able to come back and tie up the set at 19-all. However, the Pirates took a two-point lead and Newberry was unable to get closer and finish off the set. Newberry hit only .038 in the frame, while AASU hit .103. Newberry was able to put up five blocks in the set and Parrish had three kills.

In the third set, a five-point Newberry rally in the middle of the set put the Wolves up at 14-6 and Newberry led by as many as 10 points in the frame to cruise to a set win. Hayward had four errorless kills, while Parrish had five kills and two service aces. Newberry hit .333 in the set to go up two sets to one.

The fourth set was the most tense set of the day, with 10 ties and two lead changes. The frame was tied as late as 22-all, but the Pirates scored three of the final four points, with a close call kill giving the Pirates the set. Armstrong hit .250, while Newberry hit .184, with four errorless kills from Horton.

Unfortunately for Newberry, the Pirates' largest surge of the day started the deciding set, as Armstrong went out to a 5-0 lead. Newberry was able to narrow its deficit to 10-6, but the Pirates scored the final five points and had three service aces in the set to earn the win.