For immediate release – 9/24/2011 - #057
Lynchburg Volleyball Sweeps Southern Virginia, Falls to Mary Washington

LYNCHBURG, VA – The Lynchburg College volleyball team split a pair of matches, as they fell to the University of Mary Washington in five sets (25-24, 35-33, 25-23, 22-25, 9-15) and defeated Southern Virginia University in straight-sets (25-21, 25-18, 25-22) on Saturday afternoon in Turner Gym.

In the first match, Lynchburg fell to the Eagles 27-25 in set one, but rallied in the second set to a 35-33 victory that featured a thrilling finish to knot the match up a one set apiece. Freshman Aricquel Payne and junior Rachel Turk notched back-to-back kills for Lynchburg to end the back and forth set that featured several lead changes.

Payne finished the first match with a team-high 21 kills. She also added 13 digs, and assisted on a block. Lynchburg took the third set 25-23, but Mary Washington forced a decisive set five with a 25-22 win in the fourth set.  The Eagles (11-1) won the fifth set 15-9 and gave Lynchburg only their second loss all season.

Three other Hornets were in double-figures in kills, with freshman Casey Parrish registering 13 kills, junior Rebecca Loftis finished with 11, while junior Rachel Huffman had 10 kills. Junior Molly Deacon had 18 digs, while Turk had 52 assists.

Laura Gomez led the Eagles with 20 kills, while three other Mary Washington players had over double-figures in kills as well.

In the second match for Lynchburg, LC swept Southern Virginia University behind Payne and senior Elena Kritter's nine kills each.

The Hornets took the first set 25-21 before hitting .333 as a team in the second set to win 25-18. The Knights made it close in the third set, but LC took the final set 25-22.

Huffman had seven kills with junior Mallory Stewart and Loftis each adding six kills. Turk led the Hornets with 28 assists, while freshman Brittany Crawford has 10 digs.

Camille Tua led Southern Virginia (8-4) with eight kills with teammate Brynn McGinn chipping in six.

Lynchburg (10-2) heads to Virginia Wesleyan University on Wednesday for an ODAC match at 6 p.m.