HARTSVILLE – The Newberry College volleyball team pulled out a big South Atlantic Conference road matchup Friday night, taking down the Coker Cobras 3-1. With the win, the Wolves jump up to seventh in the South Atlantic Conference tallying a 12-12 overall record and 6-10 in conference play. The Cobras fall to 4-19 and 1-15 in the SAC.

In the first set Newberry squandered an 18-11 lead into a tightly contested 22-all stalemate. However, the Wolves were able to pull out three of the next four points to take the first frame.

The Cobras gave up another eight point lead in the second set as Newberry took the moment of the first set win to climb to a 13-5 advantage. Coker came right back, chipping away and putting together a valiant comeback effort, but the Wolves were able to stop it short and take the second stanza 25-19.

The key for the Wolves has been to put teams away when they have the chance, but Coker struck back in the third set, playing Newberry point for point. After a 23-23 score the Cobras strung together back to back kills to get up on the board and avoid the sweep.

The Wolves didn’t lose faith as they pounced on the Cobras again in the fourth set. Unfortunately, they saw a 17-9 lead disintegrate into only a one point advantage (21-20). Three straight points would give Newberry match point and after an attack error the Wolves put the win in the books, taking the frame 25-21.

Newberry hit .252 as a team for the match while they compiled 58 kills, 55 assists, 77 digs and seven team blocks. Junior Alexus Horton tallied 11 kills to go with a blistering .391 hitting percentage and four blocks assists. Amanda Soper led the Wolves with 12 kills while Holly Brisson, Jessica King and Logan Hayward each tallied nine apiece with King totaled a smoking .412 hitting percentage for the match. Lauren Prachar paced the defense with 20 kills and four block assists and a solo blocks, but also tacked on seven kills from the offensive side. Elayni Stokes picked up 17 digs to push her South Atlantic Conference lead to 487 digs for the season.

Newberry is back in action tomorrow as they travel to Wingate, North Carolina, to take on the eighth ranked Wingate Bulldogs at 5 p.m.