The Lady Lions split matches against UVA-Wise and Bluefield

  The Lions went in after going 2-0 in non-conference play during the week, and appear to be taking a turn for the better through the week.

Friday night, the Lions traveled to UVA-Wise, currently 4th in conference. The Lady Cavs proved to be a tough opponent as the Lions fell to them in four (25-30, 15-30, 30-25, 19-30). The match was well-played, but Wise was quick to score in all four games, forcing the Lions to play catch-up. 

In game one, the Lions kept pace with the Cavs after falling behind 6-2, then closed the gap to tie at 19, 22, and 24, before Wise was able to make a solid run. The Lions did not recover from the momentum swing going into game 2, and were down by as many as 18 points.

"In game 2, we were playing hard, but our passing was not sharp, forcing us to give away the ball instead of running our offense effectively. Wise is a solid team, and made us pay for our errors," commented Coach Sayles. Facing elimination in game 3, the Lions again stayed close to Wise, but fell behind 24-19, until setter Kathryn Rawley led an a run with 8 service points, punctuated with kills by Kim Barlow and 4 key blocks by Barlow, Leah White, and Kaylin Carswell. After a side-out exchange, Kaylin Carswell served up an ace, followed by a major kill by Abby Humphrey, and the Lions closed out the game 30-25. 

Game four went back and forth with the score eventually tied at 17. The Lions' offense stalled again behind poor passing and hitting errors, and the Cavs pulled away, winning 30-19. 

"This loss punctuated our weaknesses. There were times when we played very strong, times when we appeared to have control, then we would stall in a couple of spots in the lineup. Sadly, it has consistantly been the same spots in the lineup over the past 3 weeks in which we stall out and lose control of matches. However, I will say that we played Wise much tougher than last year, and did not collapse on ourselves."

Junior Abby Humphrey led the Lions in their losing effort with 19 kills, and 14 digs (her eight double-double of the season). Kim Barlow contributed 14 kills, 8 blocks, and 7 digs. Setter Kathryn Rawley finished with 38 assists.

Saturday, the Lady Lions traveled to an improved Bluefield College. The Lady Lions seized control early, however, and never looked back, winning in 3 for the first time this season (30-20, 30-23, 33-31).

Barlow  hit .433 with 17 kills and 6 blocks, while Abby Humphrey finished with 13 kills. Freshmen Kaylin Carswell contributed 13 digs in the winning effort, and Kathryn Rawley finished with 38 assists, 6 kills, and 9 digs. The Lions had a taste of things to come with the return of Freshman MB Robin Renfroe, who has been sidelined since Sept. 1 with an ankle injury. Renfroe contributed 5 kills and helped solidify the Lions offensive attack during her limited action in the match. 

"It was nice to finish the weekend with a win. I feel we may have turned a corner since our 5-game win over Union. We are 5-3 since then, and were just a couple points away from being 6-2 (after the 5-game loss to Milligan). The girls are very excited at Robin's return. She brings some much-needed firepower, and is expected to be a major contributor in our serve-receive lineup, along with her ability to run a much quicker attack than we have been ablet to use. Our back-up, Laura Dickey, has done an admirable job filling in for Robin this season, but I think she is excited about returning to her favorite spot at the Opposite position. We may catch a lot of teams by surpise the second half of the season if we stay healthy," Coach Sayles commented after the match.

Bryan, now 3-6 in conference (7-12 overall) travels to rival Tennessee Wesleyan on Tuesday to make up an earlier match, then will host Tennessee Temple on Friday during Homecoming weekend.