Box Score BRISTOL, Tenn. – From the opening serve, it seemed as though the King University women's volleyball team was fighting an uphill battle when they hosted Southern Wesleyan University on Friday night. After dropping the first set, the Tornado fought back to take the second, but the steady Warrior offense led Southern Wesleyan to take the final two sets and the match 3-1.
Both offenses came out firing in the first set as the Warriors (13-5, 4-0 CC) hit a blistering .378 in the first frame while King nearly matched that mark with a .333 attack percentage in the first set. It looked as though King (9-7, 3-2 CC) had control of the first set early as they opened up a 12-8 lead following one of Summer Kremer's seven kills in the set. However, the Warriors came back to even the set at 12-all before Kremer sparked a 4-0 Tornado run, forcing a Southern Wesleyan timeout. The timeout proved to be a good one as the Warriors rolled off six straight points to take an 18-16 lead, and vault them to the 25-20 first set win.
Southern Wesleyan kept their momentum going in the second set, opening up a 5-1 lead before King bounced back to even the set at eight. However, the Warriors scored 10 of the next 12 points to open up an 18-11 advantage before Jordan Baty ignited the King offense with one of her three kills in the match. Lauren Willoughby and Kremer registered back-to-back kills before the Warriors took timeout with a 19-16 lead. Grace Underwood then pulled King within one before Kremer evened the set at 20 with her fifth kill of the set. Underwood gave King their first lead since holding a 9-8 advantage earlier in the set with another kill before Kremer heated up. The senior accounted for King's last four points of the set; all kills to close out the 25-23 set win for the Tornado. Kremer ended the set with nine kills in the frame, and 16 in the match.
However, the Tornado again started the next two sets in a hold, and couldn't recover. The Warriors used a 3-0 run early in the third set to take a five point advantage and they held King off the rest of the set, taking the frame 25-22. In the fourth set, King was within five, but the Warriors broke the set open with an 8-5 run to take a commanding 20-12 lead. Southern Wesleyan then had 11 chances at set point, leading 24-13 before King made things interesting by scoring four straight points. The comeback wasn't to be though as the Warriors took the set 25-17 to take their fourth straight Conference Carolinas win.
Both teams ended with 58 kills and the Tornado posted 80 digs to Southern Wesleyan's 77. However, King made 25 attack errors and hit .196 while Southern Wesleyan hit .273 with 13 attack errors.
Kremer led King with her eighth double-double, going for 23 kills and 24 digs. Olivia Underwood also posted a double-double, dishing out 48 assists and accounting for 10 digs. Willoughby and Grace Underwood chipped in with 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Payton Tipton followed Kremer with 17 digs and Casey Williams added 11 digs for the Tornado defense.
King won't have to sit on the loss long as they host North Greenville University on Saturday afternoon. First serve from the Student Center Complex is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
