HICKORY, N.C. - For the second straight Friday night, the Newberry Wolves fought back from the brink of a loss to force a fifth set and win. This time, the Wolves beat the Lenoir-Rhyne Bears 3-2 (25-27, 25-19, 14-25, 25-20, 15-11) in Shuford Gym.

Newberry moves to 9-2 overall and 4-2 in the South Atlantic Conference with a pair of wins this week. Four of the last six matchups between Newberry and L-R (6-3, 3-2 SAC) have gone to five sets, including the last three matchups in Hickory.

The Wolves have a rare Saturday off and return to action next week with three matches at home - Mars Hill on Tuesday, Tusculum on Friday and Armstrong on Saturday.

Samantha Parrish (Angola, Ind.) led the Wolves with 22 kills and only three errors with a .317 hitting percentage, while also racking up 19 digs for another double-double.

Jessica King (Los Angeles, Calif.) had 12 kills and hit .226, while Logan Hayward (Sylvania, Ohio) added 10 kills. Elayni Stokes (Houston, Texas) tied Parrish for the team lead with 19 digs, while Lisa Ross (Bowling Green, Ky.) added 14 digs. Chelsea Mayor (Houston, Texas) passed out 52 assists to tie a career high.

"I'm really proud of winning a conference match on the road in a place where we've lost in five sets the last two years," head coach Todd Hay said. "We talked about that after the fourth set and we decided this was our year - we weren't losing in five sets again here."

"We got caught in a bad blocking rotation in that rough patch in the third set. We made some adjustments in the fourth set and it really paid off and changed up our defense on their best hitter. Hailey Rhyne and Samantha Parrish went toe-to-toe tonight, and it was really fun to watch."

Neither team could pull away from each other in the opening set, with the Bears' 14-10 lead forcing a timeout at the largest gap in the set. Newberry battled back to tie the set at 18-all. As the teams battled it out, Parrish put away a kill to give Newberry a 25-24 lead, but L-R scored the final three points to take the set. The Bears hit .263 in the set to Newberry's .214 rate, although King and Parrish each put away six kills in the set.

The second set was tight early, as the teams were locked in a 10-all tie before the Wolves went on a surge that saw them go up by an 18-13 count. Newberry would cruise to the set win from there, as L-R could get no closer than a four-point differential in the rest of the set. Hayward and Parrish both had five kills in the frame, with Parrish recording no errors. Ross had five digs as Newberry hit .275 in the set and held L-R to a .194 rate.

The third set was slopilly played, as Newberry hit minus-.140 and L-R won the set while only hitting .054. The Bears won te set 25-14 on the strenght of four blocks.

Newberry forced the decisive fifth set after pulling away to a five point lead in the fourth set at 20-15 on a Parrish kill. L-R tried to close out the match then and there and threatened with a pair of service aces, but the Wolves tightened up tp win 25-20 and head to the final set. Parrish had five errorless kills in the set, while Amanda Soper (Simi Valley, Calif.) had four kills as Newberry hit .382 in the set.

In the final set, Newberry went on a run of five straight points to push the lead to 10-4. The Bears clawed back to within 14-11, but Hayward's kill put the exclamation point on a great comeback win for Newberry. Parrish was stellar in the final set with four errorless kills, seven digs and a solo block, while Soper had three kills without a miscue.

Soper came off the bench with a team-best .327 hitting percentage and earning seven kills