Box Score BRISTOL, Tenn. – Playing their third Conference Carolinas match in four days, the King University women's volleyball team couldn't have gotten off to a much better start against Limestone College on Friday night. However, after King took the first set 25-12, the Saints rebounded to take the next three sets to earn their first win of the season.
Lauren Willoughby gave King (7-6, 2-1 CC) the first point of the match, and Summer Kremer sparked a 5-0 run that gave the Tornado a 6-1 lead with her first of 19 kills in the match. The Tornado began to gradually extend their lead before Grace Underwood served up back-to-back aces and Jordan Baty followed with a kill to force Saint timeout, giving King a 16-5 lead. From there the Tornado cruised to the 25-12 win to take the early advantage.
The Tornado looked to keep the roll going in the second set as Kremer gave King an early 5-2 lead with another termination, and the Tornado led 8-4 before the Saints (1-11, 1-0 CC) started to work their way back. Limestone eventually evened the set at 17, and took an 18-17 advantage before King took a timeout. King took another timeout after the Saints opened up a 22-18 lead, but it didn't make a difference as Limestone took the set 25-22.
The Saints didn't slow down in the third set, quickly gaining a 10-4 lead, forcing another King timeout. The Tornado deficit grew to 13-4 before King tried to get back into the set. King got within 19-13 following a Kremer kill, but the Saints answered with a three straight points, and eventually took the set 25-16 to take a 2-1 advantage in the match.
Baty, Willoughby and Sarah Collins registered consecutive kills at the beginning of the fourth set before the Saints took a timeout trailing 7-3. Nevertheless, Limestone came back and evened the set at 13 on a 5-1 run the vaulted them into a 17-14 advantage. The Saints then held a 21-17 lead before King scored three straight points to get within 21-20. Kremer then drilled home back-to-back points for the Tornado, but they still trailed 23-22. Limestone then got a kill from Rycki Ebert, and she followed that with an ace to give Limestone the 25-22 win and the 3-1 upset.
For King the loss snapped their 20-match home winning streak. Their last loss came to Montavallo University on October 29, 2012.
Kremer led the Tornado with match-highs of 19 kills and 20 digs while Willoughby and Brooke Calhoun both set career-highs. Willoughby accounted for 17 kills against 35 attempts for an attack percentage of .457. Calhoun followed Kremer with 18 digs, besting her previous career-high of 17 digs that came during the 2012 season. Olivia Underwood posted 48 assists while Payton Tipton added 16 digs for the Tornado.
King will be in action again on Wednesday when they host Pfeiffer University at 7:00 p.m., in the Student Center Complex.
