RALEIGH, N.C. – The William Peace volleyball team hosted a pair of non-conference matches this afternoon against the Wildcats of Randolph College and the Spirits of Salem College. The Pacers lost in three sets to the Wildcats but bounced back for a three set victory against Salem.
WPU (9-16, 6-4 USAS) took Randolph down to the wire in the first. Trailing, 23-20, consecutive kills from Megan Mansfield and Merica Ivey cut the Pacers deficit to one, but the Wildcats (15-8) held on to take the set, 25-23.
Randolph rolled from that point on hitting .519 as a team in the second set, which they won easily, 25-19. WPU committed 10 attack errors and 13 total errors in the third to fall, 25-19. The loss was their second of the year to the Wildcats who took the Pacers down in three on their home court a month ago.
Mansfield led the way with 13 kills at a .310 clips to go along with two service aces, four digs, and a block assist. Tempestt Frazier collected eight kills. Baylee Maughon racked up 30 assists and seven digs, while Carson Williams had a team high 13 digs.
The Pacers looked much better in their second match of the day against a scrappy Salem team who pushed Randolph to five sets the match prior.
"You can't give away sets off of errors alone like we did against Randolph…you just can't win matches like that," said head coach Kevin Daniels. "We did have a few errors and mental miscues but they had that short memory coaches look for after a loss and played much better overall.
Peace nearly let the first set slip away allowing Salem (5-10) a 6-0 swing to fall behind, 23-21. However, the Pacers recovered to close out the set, 25-23, and never looked back. They committed nine attack errors in the opening set and only five the rest of the way taking the second set, 25-15, and the third, 25-19.
It was a balanced attack for WPU paced by Frazier who hit .368 with nine kills. Frazier also contributed three block assists and a block solo. Nicole Phillips collected eight kills as did Mansfield who also tallied five block assists and a block solo. Ivey added six kills at a .375 clip to go along with four block assists.
Maughon had a strong all-around performance with 34 assists, nine digs, and three block assists. Williams led the way again with 16 digs.
"We really didn't know what they were going to come with or where they were going to put the ball, and it's hard to play defense when you're going up against the unexpected," Daniels said. "We did a really good job of making sure where we were supposed to be, we stayed in the pocket really well, and our block did a good job when they did swing."
The WPU volleyball team will return to action Tuesday, Oct. 14 hosting a critical conference match against North Division foe Greensboro College at 7:00 p.m.
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