PENSACOLA, Fla. — The Pearl River volleyball team capped off the Pensacola State College Tournament in a big way Saturday, sweeping Roane State 3-0 (25-20, 25-11, and 25-20).
"We were happy to play some great teams in an awesome event put on by Pensacola State," coach Haley Chatham said. "We were able to be competitive in each match played this weekend. We were right in both matches we dropped and also held on to the leads in the ones we won."
SET ONE
Pearl River (9-8 overall) opened the scoring through an Anna Claire Sheffield (Canton; Jackson Academy) kill and opened up a 3-0 lead.
Roane State (4-6) responded immediately to cut the deficit to 3-2, but Sammie Smith (Biloxi; D'Iberville) ended the rally with a booming kill.
From there, the teams traded blows with the Wildcats able to hold onto the advantage 7-5.
Pearl River capitalized on the slim lead and used the momentum to push things out 16-9.
Shortly after the Raiders cut the deficit to 17-11, Natalie Bartholomew (Brandon) registered back-to-back kills to extend the lead to 20-11 and force an RSCC timeout.
The Raiders made the most of the timeout by ending the Wildcat run by grabbing eight straight points to cut the deficit to two at 21-19.
Bartholomew ended the run with another kill and picked up a service ace shortly after to extend the lead 23-19 to force another Raider timeout.
Out of the timeout, Pearl River managed to hold its nerve and put an end to the set 25-20.
SET TWO
The Wildcats opened set two on another 3-0 run that RSCC quickly cut into 3-2. The then Wildcats began to exert themselves by opening up a 14-5 lead.
From there, Pearl River continued to hold all momentum and never looked back to take set two in dominant fashion, 25-11.
SET THREE
The Raiders were not fazed by the first two sets and opened on a 5-0 run to start set three. The Wildcats were able to halt the run through a Jasmine Burdine (Biloxi) block.
The teams began to exchange scores as Pearl River continued to chip away at the deficit and eventually tied things at 8-8 courtesy of three straight kills by Jaiden Gaston (Spruce Pine, Ala; Tharpetown), Bartholomew and Smith.
The Raiders reclaimed the lead 10-8, but Pearl River responded to tie things again through back-to-back kills by Julianah Overstreet (Vancleave) and Smith.
The Wildcats capitalized on the momentum and grabbed the lead 16-13 to force a Raider timeout. The stoppage did not faze the Wildcats as they continued to pile on to the lead 21-15.
Pearl River held off another late Raider rally like in set one to finish off the sweep 25-20.
UP NEXT
The Wildcats return home on Wednesday to take on Northwest. The match is set to get underway at 2 p.m.
TUNE IN
All home Pearl River Volleyball games are livestreamed for free at PRCCMedia.com/gold. Fans who have Roku, Amazon Fire or Apple TV devices can also watch the Wildcat broadcasts by downloading the "Pearl River CC" channel from their app stores.
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