Tusculum Volleyball Falls to King in Pioneer Classic
The Tusculum College volleyball team was defeated 3-0 by King University in its second game of the day at the Hampton Inn Pioneer Classic on Friday night in Greeneville.
The Tornado (5-3) won by the scores of 25-22, 28-26, and 25-17. Tusculum (0-6) was out-hit by King .283 to .117 and was plagued by 24 attacking errors. Each team tallied 40 digs and 10 blocks each.
Senior outside hitter Megan Hasse led the TC offense with 15 kills while sophomore libero Moriah Jones led the Pioneer defense with 13 digs. Junior setter Hannah Berling tallied 26 assists, while sophomore outside hitter Rachel Garnett finished with six kills. Freshman middle blocker Erin Carmody added a team-high three blocks to go with two kills.
King was led by Summer Kremer who finished with a match-high 18 kills to go with nine digs. Payton Tipton tallied 10 digs, while Olivia Underwood chipped-in a match-high 37 assists.
Clinging to a two point lead at 12-10, the Tornado reeled off an 8-3 run to push its advantage to 20-13 in the first set. TC rallied to cut the deficit to 23-20 on a kill by Hasse, but King held on to narrowly win the first game 25-22.
Tusculum looked to be in position to tie the match up at 1-1 by holding a 24-20 lead late in the second set. However, KU fought-off four set-points, and took a 25-24 lead. A king service error tied the match at 25, and Tusculum took a 26-25 lead on an attack error by Kremer.
The Tornado’s Casey Williams registered a kill to re-tie the match once more, this time at 26-26, and an attack error by Garnett gave King a 27-26 lead, and set-point. A setting error by Berling ended the set, and gave KU an improbable 28-26 victory in game two, and a 2-0 lead in the match.
King never trailed in the third set, and due in part to a pair of 4-0 runs, completed the 3-0 sweep with a 25-17 victory in the third set.
Tusculum will continue play at the Pioneer Classic on Saturday afternoon with back-to-back matches against Lander University and Belmont Abbey College at 4 and 6:30 p.m.
