CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The Concord University volleyball team swept Roosevelt Friday afternoon before falling in a hard-fought, four-set match against Shepherd in the UC-West Virginia State Crossover Tournament.

Match 1: Concord 3 – Roosevelt 0 (25-21, 25-18, 26-24)
The Mountain Lions got off to a slow start in the match, but grinded their way to a sweep of Roosevelt.

Trailing for much for the first half of the first set, Concord broke off a mini run of 5-2 to gain the separation it needed in the opening game. Tied at 12-12. Senior outside hitter Chloe Thompson and senior middle hitter Jasmine Anderson provided back-to-back kill before Thompson and senior outside hitter Meg Williams capped the run with kills. CU kept the Lakers at least two points away from tying the first set.

Another CU run near the midpoint of the second game helped the Mountain Lions open up a 2-0 lead. Despite Roosevelt notching 15 kills in the middle set, the Lakers also had nine errors while Concord was nearly error free in the second set, notching nine kills to only one error. Holding a 19-18 lead, CU limited Roosevelt to one point the rest of the way as six of the Concord's final seven points came from mistakes by the Lakers.

Even with Concord up 2-0, the Lakers did not go away as CU needed back-to-back kills from Williams to tie the set at 22-22. Then, a dump ball kill by senior setter Paige Richmond pushed Concord in front 25-24. An error by Roosevelt gave the Mountain Lions the sweep.

Williams was the only Concord player with double-digit kills as she netted 16. Senior libero Allie Davis went for 20 digs while Thompson threw in six kills and 11 digs. All five kills for sophomore right side Alexis Stack came in the third set.

Richmond tallied 20 assists.

Match 2: Shepherd 3 – Concord 1 (22-25, 25-23, 30-32, 20-25)
For the first three sets, the teams were only separated by three points as Concord's fifth-set bid fell short by five points in the fourth.

The third set turned out to a marathon with 13 ties and seven lead changes. Six of the first seven points of the game belonged to Concord before SU came storming back to take an 11-9 lead. Still trailing 23-19 in the third set, Concord ripped off five straight points as Anderson and Williams combined for a block to tie the game 23-23. Then, junior right side Maddie Stull pushed Concord ahead 24-23. However, Shepherd tied the game. From there, Concord had set point at 27-26, but could close the set.

CU needed a late rally to tie the match at 1-1. Like the third set after it, the Mountain Lions ran out to a 5-0 lead in the second game. But, trailing in the latter stages, 23-21, sophomore middle hitter Addie Akins was responsible for three of the final four points as she provided a pair of aces to go with a kill—her second ace gave Concord the win, 25-23.

Shepherd hit .245 in the opening game to open up a 1-0 lead before holding Concord to .075 in the fourth se

Williams recorded her sixth career 20-kill match as she finished with 21 kills to go with 16 digs. Thompson ripped off 11 kills while Adkins contributed 10. Thompson notched her first double-double of the season with 15 digs. Davis paced CU with 19 digs.

Richmond finished a dig shy of a double-double with 26 assists and nine digs.

On Friday, Thompson went over 1,000 kills—the eighth player in program history to accomplish the feat. She now has 1,012 kills. And for Richmond she recoded her 2,000^th assist—the fifth player in program history to go over 2,000 assists. She stands at 2,019 career assists.

Concord wraps up the UC-West Virginia State Crossover 12:00 p.m. Saturday against Young Harris. The match will be played at WVSU.