HARTSVILLE, S.C. - The Brevard College volleyball team bounced back from a 3-0 loss at No. 12 Wingate Friday night with a sweep of their own, trouncing Coker on the road to pick up its first conference win of the year.
The Tornados (7-3, 1-2 SAC) had their third-best offensive performance of the season, hitting .304 with a season-high 52 kills while holding the Cobras (3-5, 0-3 SAC) to an .093 attack percentage, marking the seventh time in 2014 that Brevard has held its opponents to a sub-.100 offensive mark.
Rachel Ruble had the best performance of her young career, hitting .654 with 20 kills and three errors in 26 attempts. Her 20 kills ties her for seventh all-time in Brevard history for a single match, and her hitting percentage trails only Brooke Seaman's .700 effort at North Greenville in November 2008 as the highest in program history. She also had a solo block and three digs in the winning effort.
Setter Erin Barr continued her impressive rookie campaign, notching her third double-double in the last four matches and setting a new career high with 41 assists. Fatima Gharachorloo had six kills and three of the Tornados' five service aces in the match, while Aleksandra Vrvilo and Maggie Weiss both reached double figures in digs.
Brevard was never truly challenged in the final two sets as the Tornados pulled ahead early in a 25-17 second-set victory and led throughout a third set that saw Coker score just 13 points. In the first set, the teams exchanged the lead eight times with 11 ties, the last coming when the Cobras knotted the score at 14.
Brevard would go on to score the next six points, however, using a solo block and a kill from Savannah Cox, two aces and a kill from Gharachorloo, and a Whitney DeMoss kill to break the set open. The Cobras would close to within three points on a service ace to make the score 24-21, but Brevard closed the set on Ruble's fourth kill of the match before she exploded for nine and seven terminations over the final two sets.
The Tornados have opened the season with seven wins in their first 10 matches, equaling last year's win total from the 7-20 2013 campaign. Brevard will look to win consecutive conference matches for the first time since back-to-back wins over Tusculum and Mars Hill in November 2009 as the Tornados face Newberry on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.
Featured image courtesy of Neil Hayes. Click here to view more photos by Neil.
