Box Score DUE WEST, S.C. – For the second consecutive night the King University women's volleyball team showed their perseverance by winning sets in extra points. On Saturday afternoon, the Tornado dropped the first set at Erskine College, but responded with a 28-26 victory in the second set before winning the third set 25-18. The Flying Fleet tried to force a fifth set, but King escaped Belk Arena with a 27-25 fourth set win to take the season finale 3-1 behind a stellar blocking performance.
King (20-10, 12-4 CC) dropped the first set 25-13, and were in danger of going down 2-0 as they trailed Erskine (18-8, 14-2 CC) 24-21 in the second set. However, the Tornado blocking got going at that point as Sarah Collins posted a solo block to pull King within one before Collins teamed up with Lauren Willoughby for another block to even the frame at 24-24. Willoughby then gave King a 25-24 lead with one of her three kills in the set. The teams then traded points until King recorded back-to-back tallies, the second one on a kill by Summer Kremer to even the match at 1-1 with King's 28-26 victory.
The momentum stayed on the Tornado side as they quickly opened up a 6-2 lead following a Collins kill in the third set. The Flying Fleet came back to get within one at 12-11, but the Tornado responded by scoring consecutive points, and five of the next seven to stretch their advantage to 18-13 following a Grace Underwood kill. An ace by Grace Underwood gave King a chance at set point, and after an Erskine tally, Collins gave King the 25-18 third set win with another kill.
Erskine scored the first point of the fourth set, but Willoughby and Kremer teamed up for three straight kills before Collins capped the 6-0 run with one of her five kills in the match. However, the Flying Fleet answered with a 6-0 run of their own to regain the lead, and eventually opened up a 16-12 advantage. At that point, King scored four straight, two on kills from Willoughby to even the score at 16-all before the teams started to trade points. It looked as though Erskine would force fifth set as they led 24-22, but Grace Underwood registered a kill to pull King within one and after another Tornado point, Ashleigh Manke recorded her sixth kill of the match to give the lead back to King. Erskine tallied another point before Willoughby brought the serve back to the Tornado with another chance at set point. Casey Williams made sure it counted as she served up an ace to give King the 27-25 fourth set victory as they escaped Due West with the 3-1 win.
King posted 14.0 blocks in the contest, which is the most the Tornado have recorded since joining NCAA Division II. Their previous best of 13.0 came during the 2011 season against Limestone College. It also marks the first time since 2012 King has reached double figures in blocks.
Kremer, Willoughby and Grace Underwood paced the Tornado offense. Willoughby accounted for 13 kills and Underwood add 12 terminations while hitting .588 in the match with only two errors. Kremer led King with 14 kills to go along with 12 digs for her 17th double-double of the season. Payton Tipton led the Tornado defense with 17 digs, and Williams added 13 digs. Olivia Underwood dished out 43 assists to go along with eight digs.
With a pair of wins this weekend, King closes the Conference Carolinas season with a league mark of 12-4, earning them the top seed in the north division. King with host north division fifth seed the University of Mount Olive in the Conference Carolinas Tournament on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m., in the Student Center Complex.
