NEWBERRY – The Newberry Wolves picked up a crucial South Atlantic Conference win on Tuesday evening, taking a 3-2 match from the Brevard Tornados. The Wolves would storm away with the first two sets, but let the third and fourth stanzas slip away after accumulating big leads. Newberry stormed to a big lead in the final set, earning their first five-set win of the season.

Boxscore

The Wolves came out of a 15-all tie and went on a 10-4 run to wrap up the first set. The second set was similar, with Brevard pushing the score to 23-23 before Newberry scored the final two points on two straight blocks. The Wolves would drop sets three and four after seeing leads of 22-14 and 22-15 slip through their fingers.

However, the fifth set would arguably the best frame the Wolves have fabricated for the entire year. With the score at 4-2 Newberry would proceed to take an 11-4 run to take the fifth set dominantly and emerge with a 3-2 victory, their first five set triumph this season.  

Junior Rachel Moran picked up her third double-double of the season, finishing the match with 13 digs while handing out 40 assists. She also put away seven kills without error to hit .500 and served up 3 aces. Senior Jessica King was outstanding, blasting a .579 hitting percentage to total 11 errorless kills and nine block assists. Senior Amanda Soper led the Wolves with 12 kills while junior Alexus Horton put away 11 terminations and sophomore Logan Hayward added 10 of her own. Newberry would hit .201 as a team to go along with eight service aces.  

The defense was not absent either, recording a season high 20 block assists with three solo denies. Senior Elayni Stokes posted a match high 20 digs while fellow senior Lauren Prachar and freshman Bre Murphy totaled 13 and 11, respectively.

Coach Todd Hay was pleased of the turnaround from set four to set five. “I am really proud of the way we played in the fifth set,” Hay said. “The disappointment from sets three and four could have led to major letdown in set five but we were able to regroup and put together a great set. However, we have to start putting teams away, we can’t jump out on a team and let them climb their way back in it.”

The Wolves will look to put away a big South Atlantic Conference weekend for them, as they travel to Mars Hill Friday night at 7 p.m. and Tusculum Saturday at noon.