BLUEFIELD, Va. -- The Bluefield College volleyball team played two of its three October home games on Friday evening, splitting its tri-match with a five-set loss to Bluefield State College and earning a 3-0 sweep over Hiwassee College.

With the split, BC's record moves to 2-14 for the season.

In the opener, BC was knocked off in five sets by Bluefield State for the second time this season.

Bluefield came out of the gates strong and gained a 6-1 lead, but the Lady Blues battled back quickly to pull within one, 7-6. An Amber Taylor-Inge kill halted the rally and ignited a BC response of four-straight points, including a pair of back-to-back aces from Channel Flores. Bluefield's advantage hovered around five points, but BSC began to climb back once again and forced a timeout from Head Coach Jim Butski when they pulled within two, 17-15. From there, the visitors reeled off a 10-2 rally to pull from behind and gain a 1-0 lead.

Another hot start for BC ran the score up to 9-3 on an ace from Marissa Grice, and the lead grew to 12-3 for the Lady Rams. In what turned out to be the team's best hitting set of the game (.362), BC ran away with set two, 25-14, with the final point coming from a Taylor-Inge kill.

Bluefield State once again fell behind quickly in the third, but the visitors climbed back to a 9-all tie. The set was nip-and-tuck most of the way, with BC taking the slight edge. After a Bluefield timeout at 20-20, BC tallied the next two points. But, the Lady Blues once again wouldn't go down easily, as they clamored back and scored five unanswered for the 25-22 set win and a 2-1 advantage.

Set four was close in the beginning, but Bluefield slowly pulled away as it progressed. Facing a 13-12 deficit, the Lady Rams reeled off six-straight points to grab an 18-13 lead, with the run including back-to-back aces from Lexie Mocarski. BC then closed out strongly to force a fifth set, as they took the fourth, 25-17.

While BC had earned leads early in each of the first four sets, Bluefield State came on strong to start the deciding set. The Lady Blues gathered an 8-2 lead before the changeover, and BC could never recover. The gap was closed to 8-5 after three-straight points, but the deficit was too much to overcome. BC was within three once again at 11-8, but a 4-1 rally from BSC claimed the match for the visitors.

Bluefield's offense was led by 15 kills from Ellen Johnson--who had a .361 hitting percentage--while Taylor-Inge and Michaela Chiarilli added nine and eight, respectively. Channel Flores and Marissa Grice dished out 16 and 11 assists, respectively. 

Lexie Mocarski led the defensive effort with 21 digs. Four others added double-digit dig efforts: Hannah Winter (15), Flores (14), Ashlyn Van Dyke and Johnson (13 apiece). Taylor-Inge added three solo blocks and two assist blocks at the net.

The team logged 13 aces in the match, led by five from Mocarski.

The Lady Blues were led by 10 kills from both Sashane Watson and Tyann Thomas. Jessie Rehwald had a game-high 22 digs, while Brittney Deveaux had five solo blocks as Bluefield State totaled 12 blocks on the night--five solos and 14 assist.

Bluefield State then took a 3-0 sweep over Hiwassee College in game two, 25-11, 25-8, 25-12.

The Lady Rams were also able to overpower the Lady Tigers, picking up a 25-14, 25-12, 25-12 sweep.

Taylor-Inge paced BC with a .471 hitting percentage, logging 11 kills to just three errors on 17 attempts against Hiwassee. Mikaela Hurst followed with nine kills, while Johnson tallied seven more in the win. Bluefield hit .301 for the match. Kiki Murphy dished out 21 assists, while Grice and Flores added eight and six, respectively.

Carly Whitham tallied 17 digs, followed by 14 from Van Dyke and 13 from both Hannah Amis and senior Emily Smith.

Bluefield added 12 more aces against Hiwassee, five coming Murphy and two each from Whitham and Hurst. Amis, Van Dyke and Smith each tallied one.

BC now has a slight break, as it's next contest isn't until next week, as they travel for Friday-Saturday matches. They square off with Truett-McConnell College Friday at 6:30 p.m. before visiting Point University for a 1 p.m. contest with the Skyhawks and a 3 p.m. matchup with Trinity College.