Box Score NEWBERRY – The Newberry College Wolves put together a remarkable comeback, but came up just short in their final home match of the season Tuesday evening. The Anderson Trojans squeaked out the win, improving their record to 22-6 overall and 15-5 in South Atlantic Conference play. The Wolves dropped to 14-14 on the year and 8-12 in the conference.
Anderson controlled the first set, taking an early 7-1 lead. The lead did not change sides for the rest of the frame. The Wolves closed the gap to 16-14, but a five point run sealed the deal for the Trojans with the final score of 25-20.
The second frame went nearly point for point and Newberry pulled out a late lead of 20-17. Anderson fought back to 21-20, but found themselves down 22-20 after a Wolves’ kill. The Trojans went on to score five of the next six points to take a 2-0 advantage with a 25-23 victory.
Even though they were down 2-0, the Wolves did not surrender. They mustered an offensive explosion, blasting a .375 hitting percentage for the stanza while holding Anderson to a .154 mark. Newberry held a 15-14 lead but used a 6-2 run to go up 21-16. After giving the Trojans their 17th point, the Wolves went on a three point run and a Trojan attack error (25-18) cut the Anderson lead to 2-1.
Newberry kept up their surge, powering through set number four with a .389 hitting percentage while forcing Anderson to a .000 percentage. After a 9-all stalemate, the Wolves went on a 9-1 run to push the score to 18-10. The Trojans pushed the score to 24-18, but the Wolves prevailed 25-18 to send the match to a fifth and final frame.
The Wolves have struggled in five set matches this season and this match was no different. Newberry struggled to get anything going offensively, hitting .030 for the set. Yet, that did not keep them from forcing a battle. The Trojans saw an early 6-2 lead slowly disappear into an 11-all tie. The crowd in Eleazer Arena got rowdy as the score went to 13 apiece, but two straight kills for Anderson denied the Wolves their second five set victory of the season.
The seniors went out with fantastic stats for their final match in Eleazer Arena. Jessica King posted 10 errorless kills, hitting a scorching .476 for the match. Holly Brisson totaled 13 terminations with a .233 mark while Amanda Soper put down 14 and hit at a .250 clip. Lauren Prachar picked up a career high 35 digs to lead the Wolves defensively and Elayni Stokes added 25 of her own to push her career total to 2,010 digs.
Sophomore Logan Hayward recorded her first double-double of the season with 18 kills and 18 digs. Fellow sophomore Ashley Minor handed out 32 assists. As a team Newberry routed the Trojans in every offensive category, tallying match highs in kills (68), hitting percentage (.231), assists (64), digs (108) and team blocks (9). The 68 kills and 64 assists were both season highs for the Wolves.
Newberry hits the road this weekend to wrap up the regular season. They travel to Harrogate, Tennessee, Friday to take on the Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters at 7 p.m. In the finale of the regular season, the Wolves will face the Carson-Newman Eagles Saturday at 3 p.m.
