For immediate release – 9/14/2012 - #046
Hornets Defeat Cougars 3-1 at W&L

LEXINGTON, VA – The Lynchburg College volleyball team defeated Averett University in four sets Friday night, 21-25, 26-24, 25-18, and 25-21.  The Hornets second game of the night took place at Washington and Lee University in order to separate Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) matches for LC.

In the first set, LC took controlled the game early on, but the Cougars came storming back.  AU stretched its largest lead to six, with the Hornets continuing to fight back.  Averett ended the game with a kill by Nicole Barringer, which was her first of the night, after registering nine kills in the set.

The second set was another back and forth affair, with the Cougars taking an early 7-3 advantage.  After a Lynchburg timeout, the Hornets charged back, taking a 16-12 lead.  Averett came back to tie it at 17.  The set would go back and forth until a tie at 24.  Setter Rachel Turk recorded her second kill of the set, before Brittany Crawford finished off the Cougars with a kill of her own.

Averett jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third, but LC controlled the rest of the set.  Turk continued her successful night with 13 assists, with three going to Rebecca Loftis and six going to Aricquel Payne.  An AU error gave the Hornets the final point of the set.

In the fourth, an early tie emerged at 4-4, with Averett taking the next point.  Lynchburg would take seven of the next nine points to take a sizeable lead.  AU fought back to take the score to 18-16, however, the Hornets pushed the advantage back to five and would not look back.

Allison Sparks and Megan Sawyer led the Cougars (4-5 overall) with 14 and 13 kills respectively.  Barringer assisted on a game-high 41 kills.

Payne led LC with a game-high 16 kills.  Turk completed a solid all-around match with 38 assists and 11 digs.  Payne, Molly Deacon, and Samantha Page added 14, 12, and 13 digs for the Hornets respectively.

Lynchburg (7-4,1-2 ODAC) will finish up the ODAC weekend on Saturday at Shenandoah.  The first conference match-up between the two opponents will start at 2 p.m.

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