BREVARD, N.C. - The Brevard College volleyball team (10-3, 2-1 USA South) saw its NCAA-era record eight-match win streak stopped on Tuesday evening, as the Tornados dropped a hard-fought battle 3-2 (16-25, 25-21, 25-17, 21-25, 12-15) to Salem College (10-3, 3-1 USAS) at the Boshamer Gymnasium.
BC has been off to the program's best-ever start to the NCAA era, and the Tornados carried a program record eight-match streak into play on Tuesday. The defeat marked Brevard's first five-set loss of the season, as the Tornados were previously 6-0 in five-set affairs in 2024.
Fifth-year senior outside hitter Makenna Parkins led the BC offense with 16 kills with a .256 hitting percentage, while fellow senior Ashley Hoxit added 15 kills and 12 digs for a double-double, while also recording a team-high five service aces. Casey Wampler, a freshman from Blountville, Tennessee, was the third Tornado with double-digit kills, driving home 12.
Freshman setter Izzy Boulay notched her fifth match with 40 or more assists, as the Newnan, Georgia product totaled 44 assists and added 12 digs defensively for her 10th double-double already in the 2024 campaign. Bailey Lance led the Tornados with 32 digs, while Kylie Katcher added 12 digs and Jaxson Tumicki totaled four blocks.
Maia Johnson led the Spirits with 20 kills, while Aspen Bradley (14 kills) and Ellie Scherer (10 kills) joined her in double figures. Leah Rymer distributed 42 assists, while McKenzie Tullock tallied 20 digs.
Salem controlled the first set with a 25-16 victory, leading comfortably through the majority of the stanza. Brevard answered in the second set, using an early run to open up a 7-3 edge. Salem battled back to take a three-point lead late, 18-15, but the Tornados strung together a critical 5-0 run that flipped the script and gave Brevard a two-point lead, 20-18. Hoxit notched a kill for the 24th point, and then the Rosman, North Carolina senior stepped up to the line and fired a service ace to clinch set number two for the Tornados, 25-21.
Brevard opened up a 15-10 edge in the third set and kept that lead through the remainder of the set, gliding to an eight-point victory 25-17 as the Tornados found themselves one set away from their ninth-consecutive victory. However, Salem answered back leading most of the fourth set and claiming a 25-21 win of its own to line up the winner-take-all fifth set.
Following a Tornado double block that gave BC a 5-4 edge in the final set, Salem scored four-consecutive points to get to the midway point with a three-point cushion, 8-5. Brevard was able to cut the deficit down to two points on four seperate occasions in the fifth set, but the Tornados were unable to draw closer than that as an Ella Brameus kill closed the set out in favor of the Spirits, 15-12.
The Tornados are back at home this Saturday, as BC gears up for a battle with William Peace beginning at 12 p.m.
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