HICKORY, N.C. — The Catawba Valley Community College volleyball team continued its winning streak on Tuesday, winning its seventh-straight match with a 3-1 victory against Belmont Abbey JV squad at the Tarlton Complex.
The set scores from an extremely competitive match between the Red Hawks and Crusaders were 25-23, 22-25, 25-22 and 25-22.
CVCC head women's volleyball coach Shannon Hudson said the back-and-forth match was good for her team.
"It challenges us and makes us a better team when we have to fight through those moments," Hudson said. "We've been working a lot on finishing matches and starting off strong. Those definitely came into play tonight. It taught us a lot about ourselves and things that we need to work on. You don't always get to see that when you are playing the less competitive matches."
Trailing the entire first set, but remaining within striking distance, CVCC won the final three points to claim the set victory and 1-0 advantage in the match.
Belmont Abbey answered back, gaining a quick 11-5 lead in set two and held off a Red Hawk rally to claim the second set. The set loss broke a 16-set win streak by Catawba Valley.
The Red Hawks would respond in the third set, holding off the Crusaders to regain the match lead, and CVCC would pull ahead 9-2 in the fourth set and once again fend off Belmont Abbey to claim the set and match victory.
Freshman Karsyn Mundy paced the Red Hawks (8-3) in Tuesday's match with 13 kills, and fellow freshmen Adair Melton and Emilee Webber added six kills each for CVCC.
Melton also recorded her team-leading 100th kill on the season in the match, and Webber also made a team-high 16 assists.
Defensively, Catawba Valley's Emily Williams made 24 digs from her libero position, and middle hitter Leslie Leonard made a team-high six blocks.
Up next for CVCC is its fourth annual Region X-travaganza, which features matches at the Tarlton Complex against Richard Bland College, USC-Salkehatchie and Wake Tech, Guilford Tech and Pitt community colleges on Friday and Saturday.
"It'll be nice to have the big tournament this weekend right here with all of our fans and families," Hudson said. "We're playing a lot of conference competition. That'll be fun to have everybody in here. It's good to get the whole region together."
