LYNCHBURG, Va. -- A kill by Taylor Allen provided Virginia Wesleyan College's volleyball Marlins with the winning point Tuesday in an intense five-game match against the host WildCats of Randolph College.

Virginia Wesleyan (10-11, 4-3) came out strong an rolled to a 25-9 victory in the opening game, before the WildCats (11-9, 2-5) regrouped to make things interesting in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference contest the rest of the way.

Randolph never trailed in the second game, building on several one-point leads to open up an 18-12 advantage behind Megan Whealey (Sperryville, Va./Rappahannock County), Jordan Templin (Ferrum, Va./Franklin County), Sydney Henson (Winston-Salem, N.C./Ronald Reagan), and Kerry McMichael (Westminster, S.C./West Oak).  VWC rallied to tie the match at 22 and 23 on kills by Allen (Bowie, Md./Bladensburg Elizabeth Seton), but two errors gave Randolph the winning points.

Allen was also instrumental in taking the Marlins from a 3-2 deficit into a 9-4 lead in the third game. Kala Guy (Fishersville, Va./Wilson Memorial), Kerry Johnson (Richmond, Va./J.R. Tucker), and Alex Kirk (Concord, N.C./Jay M. Robinson) emerged for the Marlins to help open a 19-9 lead.  The 'Cats never got closer than seven points the rest of the game.

Game four saw Randolph push out to a 15-10 lead before Virginia Wesleyan charged back to tie the score at 16 and 17, and take the lead at 19-17 on a pair of Randolph errors.  The host team did not fold however, and forced a tight game to the finish, as the teams tied at 20, 21, 22 and 23.  A VWC error and a game-ending kill by Sam Sublett gave Randolph the win.

Randolph rode the momentum of that closing surge to a 4-1 lead in the match decider, forcing a VWC timeout. The WildCats stayed in front into the latter stages of play, taking a 12-10 led on a VWC error.  But, a Johnson kill and two Randolph mistakes put VWC in front 13-12 and the Marlins never trailed again.

Guy finished with 17 kills, six aces, and 13 digs for the Marlins.  Allen finished with 12 kills and six block assists, Johnson added 10 kills, and Kirk and Alex Lambert (Alexandria, Va./Hayfield) posted seven kills each.  Allie Ball (Bogota, N.J./Bogota) contributed with 23 assists, Mallory Slade (Burlington, N.C./Eastern Alamance) added 20 assists, andErin Paton (Chesapeake, Va./Western Branch) led the team with 16 digs.

Sublett topped Randolph with nine kills.

Virginia Wesleyan competes again on Friday, Oct.14, at Roanoke College at 7 p.m., and on Saturday, Oct. 15, at Hollins University at 1 p.m.  Both are ODAC contests.

--AMDG--