Williamsburg, KY- Patriots split the opening day of the Cumberlands Invite. The Pats dropped the first game against Bryan 3-2 (17-25, 26-24, 25-22, 22-25, 15-9). Then picked up their first sweep of the season against Ohio Christian 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-15).

vs. Bryan

Allyson Grava led the way with an 18-kill, 17-dig double-double game. Sara Zampedri also put in 18 kills in her first game as a Patriot. Danielle Jackson also put in double-digit kills with 11 while adding two blocks. Kendall Arnold set a new career-high in assists with 61. Juliet Banks led the back-line with 23 digs and added six aces. Freshman Savanah Jolly tallied 17 digs in her first college game.

In the first set, Grava notched UC's first point with a kill; Kara Gipson would then tie the set with a kill. Cumberlands took the lead on a Kendall Yarber ace, 3-2. After some back-and-forth action, back-to-back Lions errors gave UC the 16-14 lead. Banks then notched back-to-back aces to make the score 18-14 to force a Bryan timeout. Zampedri added two more kills for the 20-14 lead following the timeout. The Lions scored their final three points of the set to make it 21-17. The Pats followed with a four-point rally to take the opening set.

The Lions responded by taking sets two and three. The Pats fought hard to take set four 25-22. The set had a lot of back-and-forth action. Joining the action following a Cumberlands timeout, where the Pats went on a 5-1 run to cut the Bryan lead down to 18-17. During that run, the Pats scored on three kills, two from Zampedri and one Gipson, plus two Lions errors. Cumberlands would take the lead behind a Zampedri kill and back-to-back Jackson kills, 20-19. Following a Bryan point, Zampedri put in a kill, and Allison Moneypenny notched one of her three aces of the match for the 22-20 lead. Then Jackson notched a kill while Jade McAvene put in an ace to get to set point. A kill from Gipson ended the set and tied the match at 2-2.

The Pats would fall in the final set 15-9.

vs. Ohio Christian

In game two of the day, Grava led the way on offense with 15 kills and two aces. Zampedri also had double-digit kills with 10. Jolly bested her previous game-high in digs with 18, while Banks added 11 digs of her own. Arnold came away with 31 assists and eight digs.

The first set saw the Pats trailing 6-5 before going on a 7-1 run to take the lead. The run saw two blocks from Gipson, an ace from Grava and Banks, and a kill from Zampedri. OC went on a rally of their own to regain an 18-16 lead, forcing a Coach Park timeout. After two errors from both teams, Jori Dowling notched a kill. A few plays later, Zampedri notched a kill, then an error and a kill from Grava in the set in the Patriots favor, 25-22.

Set two started 4-4 before the Pats went on a 6-1 run to take control of the set. Zampedri and Grava were the main factors on the run, as Grava notched three kills, and Zampedri had a kill and an ace. The run continued following an Ohio Christian timeout, with Grava adding two more kills to her totals, along with a couple of OC errors. Later in the set, Gipson and Dowling put the finishing touches on the set, notching two kills to end it 25-17.

UC carried their momentum into set three, as they started the set on an 8-2 run. The set started with back-to-back kills from Jackson. After a few errors, the Pats scored back-to-back points on a Grava kill and a Kiara Henderson ace. Later in the set, Ohio Christian would try to make a late rally but fell short as the Patriots picked up their first win of the season.

The Pats are back in action tomorrow, taking on IU Southeast at 11 am and Union at 7:30 pm.

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