Box Score WILSON, N.C. – Following a nonconference split on Wednesday night, the King University women's volleyball team returned to Conference Carolinas play with a solid road win on Friday night. The Tornado took the first set from Barton College en route to a 3-1 win over the home standing Bulldogs, 25-20, 19-25, 25-16, 25-19.
King (17-10, 9-4 CC) fell behind early in the first set, only to come back with a 5-0 run in the middle of the frame. Trailing 13-11, King scored consecutive points to even the score before Sarah Collins gave King the lead with a kill and Lauren Willoughby followed with an ace. Collins added another kill to give the Tornado a 16-13 lead before Barton (8-15, 6-7 CC) ended the spurt. After the Bulldogs score a point, Collins started another 5-0 Tornado run with another kill, and Grace Underwood added a termination to force a Barton timeout. Back-to-back Payton Tipton service aces gave King a commanding 21-14 lead to cape the run. Willoughby gave King the 25-20 first set win with a kill.
The Bulldogs started out with a lead again in the second set, only to see King come back again to even the score at 16, and again at 17. However, the Bulldogs outscored the Tornado from there to take the frame 25-19.
In the fourth set, the King offense really got rolling as they hit a blistering .333 in the set. After dropping the first three points of the set, King responded with a 6-0 run that was capped by a Collins kill to give the Tornado a 6-3 lead. Barton cut their deficit to just 14-13, but King responded with a 7-0 run to gain some breathing room. Collins and Summer Kremer started the run with back-to-back kills before Willoughby served up consecutive aces. Kremer added another kill before a Barton timeout, and out of the break, Willoughby added another ace before Kremer capped the spurt with yet another termination. Holding a 22-26 lead, King scored the final three points of the set on two Kremer kills around an Olivia Underwood kill to take the set 25-16.
The fourth set went back-and-forth until the Tornado used a 3-0 run that was started by a Collins kill and Tipton ace to take a 14-11 lead. King then held a 20-17 lead before Jordan Baty came up with a kill, and Casey Williams stretched the lead to 23-17 with a service ace. Willoughby gave King a chance at set point, and Collins ended the match with her 12th kill, giving King the 25-19 and 3-1 road victory.
Kremer led King with 17 kills while Collins added 12 kills and hit .526 in the match. Collins only made two errors on 19 attempts. Grace Underwood and Baty chipped in with eight and seven kills, respectively. On the defensive side, Tipton led King with 16 digs while Williams added 13 digs. Olivia Underwood and Brooke Calhoun both accounted for eight digs, and Olivia Underwood dished out 40 assists in the win. King matched their season-high of 12 service aces and were led by Willoughby's six ace while Tipton added three.
King will be in action again on Saturday when they take on the University of Mount Olive. First serve is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
