Box Score HICKORY, N.C. – The Newberry Wolves opened up conference play tonight, dropping a heart breaker to Lenoir-Rhyne 3-1. Set scores were 21-25, 24-26, 25-17 and 26-28. Newberry controlled the Bears in every statistical category, but let a couple of crucial situations slip through their fingertips. The Wolves out hit Lenoir-Rhyne .294 to .271, while totaling the most kills (68), total blocks (10) and assists (61). Four Wolves totaled double-digit kills and three had double-digit digs.
Boxscore
Junior Rachel Moran had a remarkable game, recording her first double-double of the season, handing out 48 assists, while picking up 13 digs, six kills, four service aces and a solo block. Senior Jessica King had a match high 17 kills and hit .429 to go along with eight digs, two block assists and a solo block.
Sophomore Madison Darby-McClure was sensational, recording a career high 11 errorless kills to hit .733 for the match. Senior Amanda Soper added 14 kills and sophomore Logan Hayward put away 10 of her own.
Senior Elayni Stokes picked up a match high 24 digs, while fellow senior Lauren Prachar put up 10 digs and seven kills.
The first set saw Lenoir-Rhyne jump out to a 12-4 lead, but the Wolves scratched their way back to 23-20, but the Bears did just enough to pull out the set 25-21. Soper and King led the attack, posting seven errorless kills to hit an outstanding .636 for the set. Darby-McClure added four block assists and Prachar added four digs for the Wolves.
Newberry saw three different leads crumble under their feet in the second set. The Wolves were up 24-21 before Lenoir-Rhyne score five unanswered points to take the set 26-24. The Bears outhit Newberry .304 to .226. Moran led the charge, recording four kills in five attempts and five digs. King added three errorless kills and Stokes tallied 10 digs.
In the third set Newberry played brilliant, hitting an outlandish .447 for the frame. Newberry jumped out to a 9-4 lead early, but the Bears wouldn’t go away. After Lenoir-Rhyne pulled within one point to 15-14, Newberry went on to score 10 of the next 13 points to tame the Bears, 25-17. The Wolves only had one miscue as a team in 38 attempts. King, Darby-McClure and Hayward all had four kills apiece. The defense trapped the Bears to hit .174 for the set.
After finding themselves in the hole 12-7, Newberry fought back to even the score at 15 apiece. The Bears would run the score to 20-17 before a Wolves offensive surge tied the match up at 23 all. The Bears and Wolves would go point for point until Lenoir-Rhyne put away a free ball to score the 28th point of the set for the final match point. Haley Rhyne led the Bears all the way in the last frame, totaling seven errorless kills in seven attempts. King accumulated seven kills of her own to lead Newberry. Lenoir-Rhyne outhit the Wolves .375 to .273.
Head coach Todd Hay wasn’t pleased with loss, but wasn’t disappointed either. “The key to tonight’s game was missed opportunities,” Hay said. “We had some opportunities to win each set we lost; we put ourselves in the right situations, but gave the breaks we earned right back each time.”
A big positive taken from the loss was Hay being encouraged by the offensive play the entire match. “The offense was really clicking tonight. When you have four girls with double-digit kills and hit almost .300 as a team, it’s a rarity to put up those kind of numbers and lose,” he said. “That is promising going into our first conference weekend with the offense having a game like that, but we have to refocus in practice Wednesday and Thursday to refine some things for a big conference weekend. We can’t take Mars Hill and Tusculum lightly, their record does not reflect how tough they are going to be.”
The Wolves look to rebound this weekend as they play host to Mars Hill Friday at 7 p.m. and Tusculum Saturday at 2 p.m. in Eleazer Arena for their opening South Atlantic Conference home series.
