BUENA VISTA, Va. (BC Athletics) – Bridgewater College women’s volleyball edged out SVU in a five-set thriller on the road Tuesday night. The Eagles found a way to get past the rugged defense displayed by the Knights and secured the five-set win in a barn burner.

Score: Bridgewater (BCE) 3, Southern Va. (SVU) 2
Records: BCE (14-5 OVR), SVU (12-7 OVR)

How It Happened
• The match was wire-to-wire for the entire way and inevitably came down to who would fight for the last two points. The Eagles squeezed by SVU, and came back despite dropping the first set. In the opening set, scoring sequences were constantly swayed back and forth between the two squads. The Knights used a strong five-point run in the middle of the set to take a 10-7 lead. However, the Eagles did not let up and fired back with a scoring run of their own to make it 11-10 led by three different Eagles in Agnes Alford, Reagan Stoop, and Claire Griffith. Both teams once again pushed ahead using scoring surges, but SVU got the edge taking the first set by a small margin, 26-24.
• In the second set, the Knights rattled off three straight points beginning the set, but BCE did not panic and quickly corrected their offensive miscues. The Eagles laced together a five-point scoring rally and shortly after another four-point rally to give them some breathing room. BCE stopped SVU in its tracks by conquering a strong seven-point run with a Claire Griffith smack down to close out the second set, 25-17.
• Even with another early lead by SVU to start the third set, BCE kept plugging away. Stoop added a kill while Alford and Faith DePew also got in on the offensive onslaught and managed to weather the attacks from the opposition. A continued back-and-forth set came back down to the very last few points; and the Eagles capitalized nailing a 25-23 third set off an aggressive Stoop kill.
• The Knights were able to find some daylight again in the fourth set and held on to some early momentum more successfully. SVU used a decisive four-point rally to keep the Eagles away from doing harm in the set and took the fourth set, 25-19.
• Then, it came down to the fifth set. The deciding set. The first one to 15 points. The Eagles got the early jump on the Knights and used that momentum all the way through. Stoop slammed down three straight kills to help BCE go on a commanding 6-0 advantage. However, BCE slowly let SVU come back into the match and found some sneaky momentum to gain back some control. SVU worked all the way to a 14-13 match point, but the Crimson & Gold had different plans and wiped out the match point to then take the match point advantage themselves at 15-14. Alexis Currie then dialed in and spotted open floor, nailing back-to-back service aces for the victorious 16-14 final set.

Match Notes
• Bridgewater found ways to slip past the tough SVU defense even with the Knights posting a total of 13 blocks.
• The Eagles won the service aces battle with 11 aces with five of them coming from Alexis Currie.
• Reagan Stoop came ready to compete, collecting a double-double including 14 kills and an impressive 29 digs.
• Faith DePew once again led the kills total for the Eagles, piling up 16 spikes.

Up Next
The Eagles are back in action on Friday, Oct. 17 against nationally ranked Va. Wesleyan on the road. First serve is scheduled for 6 p.m.

— BC Athletics —