Tigers Drop First Two On First Day Of Emory National Invite

Atlanta, GA – The Wittenberg University women's volleyball team headed south for their final regular-season matches of 2019. The Tiger's started the weekend taking on Randolph-Macon in their first match from the Emory National Invitational before closing out the day against Birmingham-Southern University. Paige Kucinic helped keep the Wittenberg front strong posting 30 kills between the two matches to start the weekend. The Tiger's put up a tough battle to start the day, falling in five sets 3-2 to Randol Macon [22-25, 25-21, 25-20, 21-25, 14-16]. Wittenberg returned to the court later in the day to take on Birmingham-Southern, falling 3-1 [12-25, 25-12, 12-15, 18-25]. Taylor Yontz tallied 31 digs to start the day against Randol-Macon, adding 16 in the final match against Birmingham-Southern.

Randolph-Macon Match Breakdown

Wittenberg battled the Yellow Jackets through the early going, with Randolph-Macon taking their first advantage at 10-8. After Randolph-Macon extended their lead out to 21-13, Wittenberg fought back to within two points, making it 22-20 first set. Wittenberg wouldn't back down easily, coming back to post a .028 attacking percentage with 10 kills on 36 total attacks.  Wittenberg bounced back to take the second set, 25-21, fending off an early Randolph-Macon attack. The Tiger's broke away late with kills coming from Paige Kucinic, as Gabi Hancock tallied the final two kills of the set. The Red and White logged a .263 kill percentage, putting down 14 kills with just four errors. Wittenberg kept the momentum rolling into the third set, picking up a 25-20 win. Wittenberg overcame an early Randolph-Macon lead, regaining the lead at 12-9. The Red and White maintained their advantage at 22-17 with back-to-back kills from Hancock. Katie Hiestand put down the final kill to give Wittenberg the 2-1 set lead. The two sides battled it out down the stretch after Randolph-Macon took the early 11-10 lead. The Yellow Jackets held onto the lead to take the third set 25-21. The battle continued into the fifth set, where Randolph-Macon would take the match 16-14. Kucinic led the Wittenberg attack with 16 kills on 33 total attacks, logging a .333 attack percentage, adding one block.

Birmingham-Southern Match Breakdown

The Red and White fell in the first set, 25-12 as Birmingham-Southern tallied a .375 hitting percentage in the first set. Wittenberg flipped the switch in the second set, posting a .364 kill percentage of their own, putting down 13 kills on 33 attacks with just one error, to take the second set 25-12. Wittenberg was unable to keep the momentum going, as Birmingham-Southern rallied back to take the final two sets of the match. Aubrey Cox led the Tiger attack with a .375 kill percentage, putting down eight kills on 16 total attacks with just two errors, adding five blocks to her total.

UP NEXT

Wittenberg will return to action for their final regular-season contest on Saturday, Nov. 2 when they take on host Emory College at 12:30 PM.