Marlins Rebound with Four Set Victory over SVU

BUENA VISTA, Va. -- The Virginia Wesleyan College volleyball team rebounded for a 25-21, 25-27, 25-14, 25-20 victory over Southern Virginia University Friday night in non-conference action.

The Marlins have now won 13 of their previous 14 matches after dropping a three set decision to Randolph-Macon College on Wednesday night. The win Friday was head coach Andrea Hoover's 199th victory of her career.

VWC fell behind 6-2 in the first set, but tied it up at eight due to some untimely errors from the Knights, a pair of Tiffany Barrett kills and another coming from Kristina Scott.

The first set went back and forth, with ties up until the 15-15 mark, but two SVU errors and a kill by Rosalind Ludovici put the Marlins ahead for good.

Virginia Wesleyan led 24-22 in the second set, but the Knights scored on five of the next six points to even the match. The Marlins would respond in the third, going up 6-0 on kills by Barrett and Dare Wright. That run took SVU out of the set as Virginia Wesleyan cruised to the 25-14 win.

Southern Virginia led 6-4 in the final set, its only lead of the game, but five straight errors gave the Marlins the edge for good.

Barrett led the Marlins with 17 kills on a .311 hitting percentage to go along with 16 digs. Emilee Pierson contributed 20 assists as Marin Crowder added 20 digs.

Hannah Phillips had 12 kills for Southern Virginia (5-19) while Valerie Baety posted 31 assists and Ofa Moa-Sam fong added 29 digs.

Virginia Wesleyan (22-7), ranked sixth in this week's NCAA Division III regional standings, will face another regionally ranked team as the University of Mary Washington (17-6) comes to Virginia Beach on Tuesday at 6 p.m.