Marlins Hit the Lights Out in 3-0 Win over Hollins

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The Virginia Wesleyan College volleyball team hit the lights out, both literally and figuratively, in a 25-12, 25-14, 25-18 Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) victory over Hollins University on Thursday night.

The Marlins hit a season-best .380 as a team on the evening despite having pre-game warmups interrupted due to a 15-minute power outage.

Virginia Wesleyan ran away with the first game behind an incredible .545 hitting average. Hollins jumped out to a 3-1 lead, but VWC went on an 11-1 run to take a 13-4 edge. Rosalind Ludovici posted three kills in the surge.

Leading 20-12, the Marlins took the last five points of game one behind a kill and service ace from Tiffany Barrett and a kill each from Hannah Weber and Kristina Scott.

Game two went the way of the Marlins as well despite another early lead for Hollins, 5-3 this time. A 12-2 run capped off by kills from Weber and Scott extended the Marlin lead to 15-7.

Following a Hollins' kill by Emily Lowther, Dare Wright and Barrett put away kills from Emilee Pierson to extend the gap to nine, 17-8. That is when the power went out again, this time a 10-minute delay.

The stoppage of play was not enough to stop Virginia Wesleyan though as Hollins could get no closer than nine the rest of the set.

Hollins led 7-4 in the third and final set before the Marlins charged back due to some timely errors from the visitors. Hollins kept the third game much closer than the first two, tying VWC at nine before the home team took the lead for good.

Doneisha Hall worked her way into the rotation for the third set, making three kills for VWC.

Deja Hadden led Hollins (2-11/0-3 ODAC) with seven kills and two blocks. Lela Moore led the visitors with 17 assists while Haley Ortiz posted 13 digs.

Barrett had an impressive match, finishing off 14 kills with a .722 hitting percentage to go along with a team-high 13 digs. Kirstin Sessoms ended with 21 assists as Pierson posted 16.

Virginia Wesleyan (10-6/3-0) travels to Shenandoah University  (7-4/2-0) for an ODAC match with the Hornets at 1 p.m. before facing Marymount (Va.) University in a neutral-site contest at 3 p.m.