BLUEFIELD - Women's volleyball extended its winning streak to three with a three set win over Montreat College, 25-13, 25-18, 33-31, Thursday night at the Dome Gymnasium. It was also the third straight shutout for the team.
In the first set Sophia Sansone's ace gave Bluefield College its first lead 4-3. The Rams expanded the advantage to 9-4. Montreat pulled to within three but the Rams exploded for seven unanswered points to go ahead 16-9, forcing the Cavaliers to call time. After the timeout Bluefield scored three more unanswered to go up 19-9. Leslie Flores' kill ended the first set 25-13.
The second set saw BC pull ahead 5-2 on a kill by Stephanie Reitzloff. Montreat rallied and tied things at six and later took an 11-10 lead. The Rams forged back ahead 18-13 at which time Montreat used its first timeout of the set. An ace by Kassidy Brown made it 21-15 and the Rams went on to take the second set 25-18.
The most exciting and evenly played set of the night came in the final one. BC jumped to a 4-0 lead. A kill by Madison Miller made it 10-5 in favor of the Rams. An ace by Allie Hawkins made it 16-11 and Montreat called its final timeout. Milligan kept plugging away and eventually tied the game at 24. The Cavs took the lead 25-24 and the teams battled. Bluefield retook the lead 31-30 on another Wells kill and again 32-31. The final point came when Milligan was unable to continue the volley.
Wells led the Rams with 11 kills. Aubri Whatcott had six aces along with 21 assists, and Sansone had 13 digs.
Head Coach Buddy Gallemore was pleased with his team's performance.
"We are starting to get some chemistry and we played a lot of players tonight, that way we could see what we've got. And from the looks of it, we've got a pretty good bench. I am proud of everybody. They played hard and didn't let up when we were down two or three set points and came back and won it. I am very proud of the girls," Gallemore said.
The Rams host Milligan, Saturday morning and Gallemore said the matches with the Buffaloes are always tough.
"It's always a tough one with them. It doesn't matter what the records are, it's just one of those things," Gallemore said. "We've got to play pretty good and hopefully by sitting out some of our girls (tonight), we are able to keep them kind of fresh for Saturday. We are ready to go."