MONTREAT, N.C.— The Montreat volleyball team stormed back after dropping the opening frame against the St. Andrews University Knights inside McAlister Gymnasium Friday night, capturing a 3-1 triumph on its home court. With the win, the Cavaliers improved to 2-8 (1-2 AAC) on the season.
 
In the first set, the Cavs hit well, collecting 17 kills and a .245 hitting percentage; however, the visitors one-upped Montreat offensively, utilizing a .325 attacking percentage with 16 kills—four SAU players had multiple kills in the set—to take a 1-0 lead in the match (25-22). Despite the set win by the Knights, Katie Dickey recorded six kills and five digs to captain the Cavaliers in the frame.
 
Though St. Andrews got off to a hot start in the second set after leading 7-3, the Cavs capitalized on miscues from the visitors to even the match. Three attack errors allowed Montreat to knot the set at seven before the Knights committed an additional eight mistakes to gift the Cavaliers points. The home team tallied match lows in kills (10) and hitting percentage (.128), but the Cavs escaped with a 25-21 win.
 
The win in the second frame gave Montreat the momentum it needed to surge offensively and grab hold of the match. Carrying energy and enthusiasm from the previous set, the Cavaliers killed a season-best 19 attack attempts in the third to handle the Knights easily. Seven kills from Kamryn Wolf and another five from Dickey powered the Cavs to a .326 hitting percentage and a .442 kill percentage in the set as the home team grabbed a 2-1 advantage in the match with a 25-18 triumph.
 
Needing only one more set win to capture a conference victory, the Cavaliers replicated their performance from the third to win 25-18 and clinch the team's first four-set match of the year. Dickey finished off her stunning showing with six kills to end with a match-high 20, an outstanding .359 hitting percentage and a .513 kill percentage. She also added 21 digs on the evening, recording the first 20-20 game of her collegiate career.
 
The Knights committed another six attack errors in the fourth frame and notched a match-low eight kills to drop their hitting percentage to .136 for the contest. On the other hand, Montreat attacked consistently over the final two sets to increase its hitting percentage to .240 overall. In the end, the Cavs registered 12 more kills than their opposition (61-49), while attacking five less times, and notched a 61.4 percent sideout percentage to SAU's 52.1 percent.
 
"We were finally able to set in stone some of our connections, run different plays that we hadn't this year and put the ball away to get it done," commented coach Brittany Carpenter. "In the last set, we worked on finishing and played games to five the entire set. The girls fed into that… and that really helped us seal the deal to put the game away."
 
Four different Cavaliers tallied double-digit dig totals led by McKinley Edmondson, who concluded the matchup with a career-high 27. Alivia McNally added 13 digs to go with her 25 assists, and Reese Davis captained the team with 28 helpers. Wolf finished with 15 kills on the night.
 
"We always start the first game a little rough, but then we came back—we had the right mindset and came together as a team," mentioned Dickey. She continued, "I think we did well finishing the game. We've had trouble in the past finishing games, so I think we did that really well tonight, especially in the last set because we just finished that game and they didn't have a chance to come back. I'm super happy with our team and I'm excited to see what we're going to do in the future."
 
Coach Carpenter also noted the team's poise and resolve after falling down early, "It was great to see how we came back from that first set. There are two things a team can do in that situation: either shut down or bounce back, and it was great to see them bounce back."
 
Volleyball continues its three-game homestand with a match against the Bryan College Lions on Tuesday. First serve inside McAlister Gymnasium is set for 6:30 p.m.