ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. – The William Peace women's volleyball team looked dead in the water after dropping the first two sets and falling behind in the third, 21-14, on the road against the Battling Bishops of NC Wesleyan Tuesday night. However, the Pacers stormed all the way back winning the set to keep the match alive and rode the momentum all the way to a 3-2 win in their 2014 conference opener.
NC Wesleyan (1-8, 0-1 USAS) took the first set, 25-17, thanks in large part to 10 WPU attacking errors. The Pacer's defense was the issue in the second as the Bishops hit .423 and won, 25-15.
The Pacers (3-11, 1-0 USAS) trailed by two in the third until a four point swing in favor of the Bishops pushed it to a 16-10 game. A few minutes later, WPU found themselves down, 21-14, prompting a timeout from head coach Kevin Daniels, and for whatever reason, a completely different Pacers team emerged on the other side of the break.
WPU went on a 6-1 run to make it 22-20 and then tied things up, 24-24, on a service ace from Merica Ivey. Wesleyan went ahead on the next point, but three consecutive kills from Tempestt Frazier capped off a 13-4 run for the, 27-25, third set victory.
"We made a couple minor adjustments to our attack, but we really stuck with the same game plan from the outset," said Daniels. "We challenged the girls to dig down deep and they responded."
Both teams battled back-and-forth during the entire fourth set, which was tied 12 different times with five lead changes, but the Pacers found a way to grind out a 25-23 win to force a fifth set.
Tied at seven in the decisive set, WPU finished the Bishops off with an 8-2 run to clinch the match.
Megan Mansfield and Frazier led the WPU attack both tallying 13 kills. Mansfield also chipped in five digs, four block assists, and a block solo. Ivey had 10 kills, four block assists, and two service aces, while Nicole Phillips collected 10 kills to go along with six digs, a service ace, and a block solo.
Baylee Maughon led the team with 29 assists in addition to 10 digs and three kills. Sarah Weavil added 13 assists in two sets of action.
Maddie Irvin paced the defense with 17 digs. She also picked up four assists and two service aces. Carson Williams added three service aces and 12 digs.
"At the end of the day, we picked up a much needed win, but sometimes it matters how you win," said Daniels. "We look great at times, but we've been incredibly inconsistent to this point, and we can't expect to dig ourselves out of a hole like the one we did tonight."
The William Peace volleyball team will return to action this weekend as they travel to Greensboro College for a pair of USA South matches. They'll take on Mary Baldwin at 12:00 p.m. followed by Greensboro at 4:00 p.m.
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