DUE WEST, S.C. – The University of West Georgia volleyball team earned a hard fought win number one on Saturday morning, defeating Young Harris 3-2 in game two of the Erskine Invitational.
After losing a heartbreaking, marathon opening set, it looked like West Georgia (1-1) may cruise to a victory after responding with lopsided wins in sets two and three. Young Harris (0-2) had other plans as they won the fourth and pushed the Wolves to the brink in the fifth and final set.
A trio of Wolves had double-digit kills, led by Zoë LaBreche with 15 while
Caitlin Frazee had 13 and
Emilee Harris had 12.
Three early kills from Harris fueled the Wolves to an early 7-4 lead in the opening set, but momentum swung back quickly as Young Harris earned their first lead of the match at 10-9. The YHC lead eventually got to 12-9, forcing
Kara Hellmann to take a timeout. The Wolves responded and clawed back to a 16-16 tie, but then once again found themselves trailing 20-18. A quick 3-0 run by the Wolves put them back on top and forced a Young Harris timeout.
The two teams traded blows out of the timeout, turning the opening set into a long, back-and-forth affair. Young Harris finally put together two straight points to win 30-28 and take the early lead in the match.
After trailing 6-3 early in the second set, West Georgia would take a lead at 7-6, and never look back. The Wolves would lead by as much as eight in the second set, as a
Claire Conway kill made it a 24-16 advantage. The Mountain Lions tried to make it interesting winning three straight points and forcing a UWG timeout, but the Wolves put the set away on the next point to tie the match.
Fueled by five kills from
Caitlin Frazee, the Wolves once again erased an early deficit to cruise to a 25-15 win in set three. UWG trailed 4-1, but went on a 9-0 run to make it a 10-4 advantage. Another 5-0 run later in the set made it 16-7, and UWG kept the pedal down to win 25-15 and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
But Young Harris wouldn't go down without a fight as the Mountain Lions forced a fifth set with a wire-to-wire, 25-20 victory in the fourth set.
In the fifth set, Young Harris once again had an early lead, and then West Georgia would get a pair of service aces by
Kelli Kaiser sandwiched around a LaBreche kill to lead 8-6. YHC then led 11-9 before UWG went on a 5-0 run to force match point at 14-11.
Again though, Young Harris would fight back, making it a 14-14 tie, but a big swing by Harris forced another match point and then an unforced YHC error ended the set and the match, giving the Wolves a win.
Kaiser was a weapon at the service line with a game-high six service aces.
Hannah Speeney racked up 46 assists in the win while also adding 16 digs.
Sydney Blackmon led the way on the back line with 19 digs while Harris had 17.
At the net, freshman
Sanai Young led the way with four blocks while Frazee had three.
The Wolves are back in action this afternoon against tournament host Erskine. The match is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.