Williamsburg, KY – Cumberlands notched their seventh sweep of the season as they take down UT Southern 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-20). The Patriots move to 14-7 on the season behind big performances by Allyson Grava and Danielle Jackson.

Offensively, the Pats were led by Grava who tallied 20 kills, Anna Blumeier also tallied a double digit kill total with 12. Jackson served up a season-high of five aces, along with two blocks. Kendall Arnold led the passing attack with 42 assists and Juliet Banks came away with 23 digs.

The opening set started with a Grava kill and a block from Jackson and Emily Prewitt for the Pats. After a bad set, UC would score five straight points. Jackson and Grava started the run with a kill each, then Jackson notched back-to-back aces. Another kill from Grava would push the lead to five, 7-2. Later in the set, a Grava kill followed by a Kira Ervin ace pushed the score to 21-12.  From there Grava tallied three straight points, by way of two aces and a kill. Blumeier then notched the set point kill to take set one.

Set two opened in the Firehawks favor, but the Patriots rallied to tie the set at 16-16. After a Firehawk error, Jackson put in back-to-back aces to take a 19-16, which forced a UT Southern timeout. Following the timeout, Jackson added another ace. After a few errors from both teams, Grava would extend the Patriots lead to 22-18 with a kill. A few plays later, Grava put in another kill to give the Pats set point, then Shelby Lackey ended the set with a kill of her own.

Cumberlands carried their momentum into set three, to take a 10-4 lead. The Patriots opened the set by getting three kills from both Blumeier and Grava, along with a kill from Prewitt and Lackey. From there, the Firehawks rallied to cut the gap down to three 14-11. Then UC would answer with back-to-back kills from Grava and Lackey. A few plays later, a Blumeier kill and a Firehawks error moved the score to 20-16. Lexi Lester added an ace followed by a Grava kill and a Lackey block made it a 23-17 game. UT Southern would score two points to force Head Coach Kathryn Hart to call a timeout. Following that timeout, Grava notched a kill for match and set point, then two plays later she ended the game with a kill.

Cumberlands will now hit the road and head up to Pikeville for a match on October 11th at 7 pm. Then they will return home next Saturday for a game against Shawnee State at 1:30 pm.

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