Lynchburg, Va. -- University of Lynchburg's volleyball team split a pair of matches Saturday in a tri-match with regional powerhouse teams, falling to Virginia Wesleyan in the opener but rallying to top Averett in the nightcap, both by 3-1 tallies.

The Hornets began the day with a 25-10, 20-25, 25-13, 25-23 loss to the Marlins in which the Lynchburg offense just couldn't get going. Abbi Leeper's 10 kills and four aces and Taylor Breeden's 20 assists and eight digs led the way for Lynchburg. The first set didn't go as planned for the Hornets, who fell behind 9-4 in the early going. The hosts closed the gap to 9-7, but VWU ended the set on 15-3 run to take the early advantage.

Lynchburg figured things out in the second set, storming out to a 9-5 lead and maintaining the lead. A Breeden ace evened the score at a set apiece after the 25-20 Hornet victory.

The Marlins rebounded quickly, however, and took the third set handily and the fourth in come-from-behind fashion to hand Lynchburg its first Old Dominion Athletic Conference loss of the season.

Evening action went much better for the Hornets to the tune of a 25-18, 15-25, 26-24, 25-19 win over Averett.

Lynchburg jumped out to the early 7-3 lead thanks to a 4-0 run on Mya Green's service and expanded the advantage to as many as six points in the near wire-to-wire win.

After the Cougars took the second, Lynchburg won a thriller in the third, erasing an early deficit to tie things at 15 on a Jordan Bartemeyer ace. An Averett attack error put the Hornets in front and forced the visitors to call timeout, and the Hornets rode that momentum to a 22-20 advantage before the Cougars' second timeout. Averett came out of the timeout swinging and forced set point at 24-23, but after a timeout of its own, Lynchburg rolled off three straight points and took control of the match with a 26-24 triumph.

The fourth was tight until the late going. Leading 17-16, the Hornets put together an 8-3 run to end the match, highlighted by kills from four different Lynchburg players.

Emma Drake and Paige O'Donnell led the Hornet offense with 10 and nine kills, respectively, while Josey Walton chipped in six kills and four digs in just two sets played. Leeper led the defensive effort with a season-high 28 digs (and seven kills) to go with Bartemeyer's 17 digs and three aces. Breeden added 23 assists while Green, a freshman, reached the 20-assist mark for the first time in her career, also contributing 12 digs. Alexis Horner made five blocks to lead the defensive effort at the net.

The win snapped a four-match losing streak to Averett, marking the Hornets' first victory over their soon-to-be conference rivals since the 2014 season.

Lynchburg (3-6, 1-1 ODAC) will hit the road for mid-week conference play Wednesday with a trip to Ferrum for a 7 p.m. match.

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--LYN--