BREVARD, N.C. - In a match that featured 33 ties and 16 lead changes, the Brevard College volleyball team fell in five sets to Mars Hill and was mathematically eliminated from postseason contention on Saturday night.
The Tornados (10-16, 4-15 SAC), set school records with 225 attack attempts and 118 team digs, but were unable to overcome being outhit by 54 percentage points by the visiting Lions. Mars Hill totaled 66 kills in the match, including 27 by Rebecca Butler, and hit .304 in the decisive fifth set that raised their team hitting percentage to .161 for the match.
Libero Aleksandra Vrvilo had 36 digs, which ranks third in Brevard's NCAA history and is just three digs shy of her own school record of 39 digs. Vrvilo led a contingent of four Tornados that reached double figures in digs, highlighted by double-doubles from Fatima Gharachorloo (team-high 14 kills, 15 digs) and Erin Barr (match-high 48 assists, 19 digs).
Brevard reversed its fortunes late in the first set after allowing the Lions to reach set point at 24-21. Five straight Tornados' points, three of which came on Gharachorloo kills and a fourth on a combined block between Gharachorloo and Savannah Cox, erased the deficit and gave Brevard a 26-24 first-set win.
The third set played out in a similar fashion, with the Tornados again finding themselves trailing 24-21. Brevard rallied for four straight points before the teams were tied twice more down the stretch, but Brevard secured a 28-26 win. Gharachorloo had seven kills without an error in the set, including five in a seven-point span that saw a 15-10 Mars Hill lead evaporate into a 16-all tie. She and Kindle Kirkham, who paced the Tornados with a career-high 15 kills, combined for 12 kills and hit .313 in the set.
But the Lions, who defeated Brevard in a five-set thriller on October 4 in Mars Hill, were too strong for the Tornados on the evening. The Lions scored seven consecutive points to turn the fifth set into a runaway, nearly a month after the two teams played to a 15-13 result in the winner-take-all fifth set. They also took control of the second set with a four-point spurt that gave Mars Hill a 20-16 advantage, going on to a 25-20 victory.
Brevard was tantalizingly close to another miracle comeback in the fourth set that would have given the Tornados the victory. After trailing 23-18, a Barr kill and four Lions' attack errors came as part of a 5-1 run that drew Brevard to within a point before Mary Kate Griffin evened the match at two sets apiece with a kill.
Brevard will face Lenoir-Rhyne on Tuesday night for the Tornados' final home match of the season. First serve is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
