Box Score MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. – The King University women's volleyball team posted one of their best offensive showings of the year on Saturday when they took on the University of Mount Olive. The Tornado dropped the first set, but came back with a vengeance behind four hitters that recorded at least 10 kills to take the Conference Carolinas match 24-26, 25-18, 25-12, 25-14. With the win, King moves into sole possession of first place in the Conference Carolinas North Division with two matches remaining.
In the match, King posted their second highest hitting percentage this season, hitting .381 in the four set victory. The Tornado were led by Lauren Willoughby who led a quartet of hitters that posted at least 10 kills with a career-high 18 kills. The junior only made three attack errors in the contest for a .395 attack percentage. She was joined on the outside by Summer Kremer who added 14 kills to go along with 12 digs for another double-double.
The duo wasn't to be outdone however, as middle hitters Grace Underwood and Sarah Collins combined to hit .537. Collins didn't make an attack error in the match, accounting for 12 kills on 17 attempts for an impressive attack percentage of .706. Underwood was nearly impressive as she added 12 kills on 24 attempts against just two errors for a .417 attack percentage.
Setter Olivia Underwood had one of her best matches of the year running the high powered Tornado offense. She dished out a career-best 59 assist to go along with nine digs, narrowly missing the double-double.
King (18-10, 10-4 CC) started the match by hitting .350 in the first set, opening up a 15-11 lead, and held a 23-22 advantage late. However, the Trojans (7-22, 3-11) scored four of the final five points to take the set 26-24. However, the Tornado offense was just heating up as they posted .423 attack percentage in the second set. Trailing 13-12, King used an 8-0 to gain a 20-13 lead in the set. Kremer started and ended the spurt with kills while added two in the middle. Jordan Baty also added one of her eight kills in the match on the run and Olivia Underwood served up an ace as King went on to take the set 25-18 on a Willoughby kill.
In King's 25-12 third set win, the Tornado made just one attack error while posting 17 kills on 29 attempts for a blistering .552 attack percentage. Grace Underwood and Kremer teamed up for four straight kills, three by Underwood early in the frame, giving King a 7-2 lead before the Tornado scored five straight points to open up a 20-10 lead. Willoughby and Collins capped the win with back-to-back kills.
The Tornado grabbed the lead early in the fourth set, and used a 5-0 run to gain separation from the Trojans with a 17-8 advantage. King then took the match by scoring five of the final six points, three of which came on kills from Grace Underwood, Baty and Kremer to take the set 25-14 and the match 3-1.
Payton Tipton led the defense with 19 digs while Casey Williams accounted for 15 and Kremer added 12.
With the win, and losses by Lees-McRae College and Belmont Abbey College, the Tornado have moved into sole possession of first place in the Conference Carolinas North Division with two matches remaining. King will play at Emmanuel College on Friday at 7:00 p.m., before taking on Erskine College next Saturday. Erskine leads the south division with a perfect 14-0 record in league play.
