BREVARD, N.C. - The Brevard College volleyball team lost to the Pioneers of Tusculum, 3-0, on Friday night at Boshamer Gymnasium in conference play.
Tusculum hit .306 in the match while holding the Tornados to .152 hitting percentage. The Pioneers also had a 46-32 advantage in kills including 17-10 in the final set while hitting above .270 in all three sets and holding Brevard to .250 and below in each set.
Rachel Ruble led Brevard (10-15, 4-14 SAC) with 10 kills and hit .586 while Hannah Elmore and Kindle Kirkham each notched six kills and hit .250 and .294, respectively. Erin Barr led with 24 assists on the night for Brevard. Megan Hasse led Tusculum (13-13, 12-6 SAC) with 11 kills and two service aces, while hitting .300.
After the Pioneers came out and scored three quick points, Brevard answered by scoring nine of the next 13 points to take a 9-7 lead with kills from Elmore, Whitney DeMoss, and Kirkham while getting help from three Tusculum errors. The teams traded points back and forth before the Pioneers took an 11-10 lead and never relinquished the lead, winning the set 25-17.
In the second set, after trailing 2-0, Brevard took a 3-2 lead before teams again traded points before Tusculum took a 6-5 lead. The Pioneers went to score nine of the next 10 points for a commanding 16-7 lead before committing three straight errors to have Brevard come within six.
The closest Brevard came was four points before Tusculum, which came out of a timeout and went on to score six of eight points for a 23-15 lead, and then notching the last two points with a kill by Sabrina Schleuger and an ace by Moriah Jones for a 25-17 second set victory.
Tusculum seemed poised to cruise to an easy third set victory, jumping out to a 12-3 lead. However, Brevard kept inching back to come within seven points before each team traded back-to-back points each as the Pioneers led 20-10.
Brevard stormed back scoring nine of the next ten, including seven straight points to make it 21-19. The Tornados were helped by four kills, four errors and an ace to come within two points. Savannah Cox and Ruble each had a kill in that run while Kirkham had two.
Kristen Rathbun had the lone ace during the run but Tusculum finished the set with three kills and an attack error by Brevard to hold off the rally.
The Tornados return to action tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. as they host the Lions of Mars Hill in conference play at Boshamer Gymnasium.
