BREVARD, N.C. - The Brevard College volleyball team was unable to return to its early-season winning ways on Tuesday night at Boshamer Gymnasium, falling in a sweep to Lenoir-Rhyne in the Tornados' final home contest of the 2014 season.
The Bears (20-8, 14-7 SAC), who entered the week ranked No. 3 in the Southeast Region, hit a cool .213 for the match while limiting the Tornados' (10-17, 4-16 SAC) attack to an .065 mark. Fatima Gharachorloo and Rachel Ruble tied for the team lead with six kills as the Tornados were only able to manage 30 terminations on the night.
The Tornados showed a great deal of moxie in the first set after an overturned call appeared to give momentum back to the Bears. The teams had played close throughout the set, with neither team able to open an advantage of more than five points. Brevard initially went up 21-19 on an apparent attack error by Haley Rhyne, but a linesman ruled that there had been a touch as the ball fell to the floor. The two-point swing tied the set at 20, and Brevard would give up the next three points to fall behind 23-20.
But the Tornados fought back, scoring four straight points on kills by Gharachorloo, Ruble, and Hannah Elmore and a timely Lenoir-Rhyne attack error to take a 24-23 lead. The teams would tie six times down the stretch before a Brevard attack error and a Bears' block by Rhyne and Haley Gottberg gave Lenoir-Rhyne a 30-28 victory.
Rhyne paced the Bears with five blocks on the evening, while Gottberg had a double-double with a match-high 40 assists and 12 digs. Ashley Wells and Brooke Redmond had 13 and 12 kills, respectively.
Brevard came out flat in the second set and allowed the Bears to take advantage. The Tornados pulled to within two points at 10-8, but Lenoir-Rhyne would go on to score 15 of the set's final 20 points to take a lopsided 25-13 win. The Bears then remained in control for most of a third set that saw a pair of lead changes and 12 ties, holding off a late Brevard rally to keep the Tornados at bay and completing the sweep with a 27-25 third-set victory.
Brevard will now travel to Catawba and Queens on Friday and Saturday to wrap up the regular season. Friday's match will begin at 7:00 p.m. in Salisbury, while the Tornados and Royals will tangle at 2:00 p.m. from Charlotte on Saturday.
Featured image courtesy of Neil Hayes. Click here to view more photos by Neil.
