MARS HILL, N.C. – The King University women's volleyball team opened the season on Friday afternoon against Coker University in what was a defensive contest at Mars Hill. The Cobra block was stout as their defense held the King offense down throughout the match, handing King the 3-1 defeat.
THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: Coker 3, King 1 (25-18, 25-12, 24-26, 25-23)
LOCATION: Chambers Gymnasium; Mars Hill, N.C.
RECORDS: King 0-1; Coker 1-0
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Set
- Back-to-back kills from Riley Nelson and Caroline Cable helped start a 5-0 King run that vaulted the Tornado to a 9-5 advantage.
- However, the Cobras chipped away and later used their own 5-0 spurt to take a 14-12 lead.
- Coker gradually pulled away and scored three straight points to take the set 25-18.
Second Set
- The Coker momentum carried over to the second set as the Cobras scored the first three points to gain the advantage.
- Coker stretched that advantage throughout the set before using a 7-0 run to take the set 25-12.
Third Set
- The teams traded runs to start the set as Katie Harless kill ended a 4-0 Cobra run and started a 5-0 Tornado spurt.
- Abigale Jayne, Hailee Blankenship and Caroline Cable all added kills on the spurt.
- Runs were traded again as a 4-0 King run, that featured kills from Chloe Clayton, Cable and Nilson, gave King a 10-9 lead.
- Coker opened up a 17-13 lead before King answered with six straight points, started by a Nelson termination.
- Paula La Mendola then posted back-to-back aces before another Cable kill.
- Following another La Mendola ace, Blankenship gave King a 19-17 lead with a kill.
- The score was then tied at 19, 21, 23 and 24 before consecutive Tornado points gave King the set 26-24.
Fourth Set
- Coker again started strong with four straight points, but the Tornado battled back, scoring nine of the next 10 points.
- Clayton served four aces on the 8-0 spurt that gave the Tornado a 9-5 lead.
- The Cobras fought back and evened the score at 10 before taking a 13-11 advantage.
- The set then went back-and-forth before King took a 20-18 lead with three straight points before the teams traded points.
- A 3-0 Coker run gave the Cobras a 23-22 lead before a Blankenship kill evened the tally at 23.
- However, Coker scored the next two points to take the set 25-23 and the match 3-1.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Cable led the Tornado with career-highs of nine kills and 12 digs.
- Nelson followed with a career-high of eight kills.
- Blankenship led King with 15 digs to go along with five kills.
- Harless handed out 18 assists and added eight digs.
- La Mendola added 13 digs and Gabri Puertas chipped in with 11 digs.
FOR THE FOES
- Chelsey Blume led Coker with 16 kills and four block assists.
- Breyon Forrest added nine kills and six blocks.
- Ada Kuday handed out 36 assists to go along with eight digs.
- Meadow Morse posted a match-high 30 digs.
UP NEXT
- King takes on Bluefield State University on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday at Mars Hill before taking on Mars Hill at 4:45 p.m.
- Coker faced Shorter University on Friday night and takes on Bluefield State on Saturday.
