Box Score ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University volleyball team fell in four sets to West Liberty (14-25, 22-25, 25-18, 15-25) Friday evening at the Carter Center in Mountain East Conference play.
West Liberty (9-15, 6-6 MEC) jumped out to an 11-1 advantage in the first set and cruised to an easy 11-point win.
The Hilltoppers stormed out to a similar lead in the second game leading 13-7. However, Concord (13-12, 3-8 MEC) began to chip away at the deficit. With WLU still holding a 20-15 edge, the Mountain Lions scored seven of the next eight points to take a 22-21 lead.
During the run CU received kills from senior setter
Nikki McMillan and senior outside hitter
Brytni Willis. Freshman middle hitter
Shea Hoffman and sophomore middle hitter
Lauren Richardson each tallied a block and senior middle hitter
Sarah Jones added an ace. But, the Mountain Lions couldn't keep the momentum going as West Liberty scored four straight points to win the second set.
The Mountain Lions were relentless in the third game as they took a 12-7 lead, edging closer to West Liberty, beating the Hilltoppers 25-18 in the third set, but still trailing 2-1 in the match. The foursome of freshman middle hitter
Alexis Elliott, Hoffman, Jones and Willis combined for 15 of the Concord's 17 kills during the set. Willis led the way with six.
West Liberty raced out to a 10-4 advantage in set four and won 25-15 to take the match 3-1.
For the match, Jones and Willis both finished with double-doubles as Jones had 10 kills and 14 digs while Willis notched 10 kills and 11 digs. In the process, Willis passed Desiree Deck for third on the all-time kills list at CU and now has 1,040 for her career.
Jones also tied her career high with four services.
McMillan added 18 assists while freshman setter
Casey Mandeville chipped in 16 assists.
Concord will return to the court Saturday for its final non-conference match of the season with a matchup with Winston-Salem State at 5:00 p.m.
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