Hawks Drop Pair Of Matches To St. Thomas And Millsaps

MONTGOMERY, Ala.- After sweeping yesterday's contests against Piedmont and LaGrange, Huntingdon Volleyball returned to action at home, this time facing the likes of St. Thomas University and Millsaps College. 

After finding success yesterday, the Hawks ran into a buzzsaw today, falling to both the Lions and the Majors in four sets to close out their home tournament. 

Match One v. St. Thomas

St. Thomas set the tone early with a 25-20 first set victory. Picking up 16 kills while committing just three total errors, the Lions grabbed a 6 point lead at 11-5 and never looked back as they picked up the 1-0 advantage. They doubled down in the second set, building on their established momentum with a 25-13 second set win. Aly Harris sent one over the net midway through the set to bring the deficit to 14-10, but St. Thomas found a second win late, opening up a 5-0 run to extend their lead to 19-10 before closing things out. 

Not to be outdone however, Huntingdon answered in the third set by claiming a highly contested 26-24 victory. The two teams were even through the early stages of the set, with Lily VanDyke's kill evening things at 7. Aly Harris went on to give the Hawks a 8-7 lead, but the Lions roared back to move in front 12-8. The Hawks kept at it however, clawing their way back into things before Morgan Suggs' ace tied things up at 16. The Hawks held three seperate leads coming down the stretch, trading blows with St. Thomas before Suggs finally put the Lions away, bringing the score to 2-1. 

In the fourth set, the Lions led from end-to-end, committing just one error to go with 10 kills en route to a 25-11 set win and a 3-1 match victory. 

Match Two v. Millsaps

Contrary to their start in today's first match, the Hawks flew out of the gates to take a 25-23 win in the first set. After falling behind 9-6, Huntingdon, boosted by multiple errors for the Majors, opened up a run to lead 17-16. The Majors managed to even things back up at 23, but Kinsley Martin's ace put Millsaps away and gave Huntingdon the 1-0 advantage.

In spite of winning the first set, the tables began to turn in the second set, as Millsaps walked away with a 25-14 victory. Committing a match-high 10 errors, the Hawks held a hitting percentage of -.007 for the set as Millsaps evened things up at 1-1.

The Majors stayed hot in the third set, claiming a 2-1 match lead with a 25-16 victory. Millsaps saw tremendous success at the net throughout the set, scoring 12 kills with just 6 kills on the set. The two teams remained deadlocked through 16 points, but the Majors closed things with a 9-0 run to put Huntingdon away.

Dropping the match in four sets, the Hawks were defeated 25-17 in the final set. Trailing 16-8 coming down the stretch, Brielle Smith tried to will the Hawks back into contention, but the Majors remained solid, outscoring the Hawks 8-5 coming down the stretch to close things out. 

The Hawks look to right the ship on Wednesday, September 10th at home against Oglethorpe. Gametime is set for 6:30 PM CT.