SPARTANBURG, S.C.- Converse offense started off hot before stalling out in a 3-0 (15-25, 14-25, 16-25) straight sets defeat against Southern Wesleyan on Wednesday evening.
Converse (7-20, 1-13 CC) started the match opening up a 6-2 lead with kills by Samantha Haynes (Chesnee, S.C.), Journee English (Columbia, S.C.), Candace Clack (MacCleeny, Fla.) and Katie Butler (Savannah, Ga.) before Southern Wesleyan (20-8, 11-3 CC) took over the match tying things at 7-7 and never looked back. The Warriors went on a 23-9 run to end the match 25-15.
Haynes led the Valkyries with a team-high 14 kills and a hitting percentage of .375. Haynes committed two errors on the night on 32 attempts. Butler finished the match with eight kills and two errors on 29 attempts (.207).
Krislyn Moore (Spartanburg, S.C.) dished out 20 of the possible 28 assists. Moore added nine digs on the night. Aubrey Crosby (Spartanburg, S.C.) led the team with 18 digs.
SWU cruised in the second set taking the 2-0 lead with a 25-14 set win. During the first two sets, SWU hit .385 and .361 committing one error in each of the first two sets.
Converse looked to have a different team on the court in the third set staying close for the first 24 points. The Valkyries jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead on a kill by Butler. SWU battled back into the set regaining the lead at 7-6. A Warrior rally took a 11-10 advantage and raced out to a 22-13 lead and finally taking the set and match at 25-16.
SWU dominated the point of attack, committing only seven errors on the night. Converse dished out 20 errors, eight errors in the third set alone.
Converse wraps up the season this weekend, Nov. 7-8 with home matches against Pfeiffer (Friday) and hosting a tri-match with Belmont Abbey and Georgia Regents (Saturday). The match against Pfeiffer has been moved to 2pm on Friday. The tri-match begins at 12pm on Saturday.