WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Southern Wesleyan volleyball bounced back with a 3-0 (25-15, 26-24, 25-17) sweep over Florida College at the Northwood Hardwood Classic. The Warriors dropped the opener in four against St. Thomas (Fla.).

Sarah Hughey continued her strong start, adding 17 kills to her 13 from earlier in the day.  The redshirt-sophomore hit .333 for the match including .571 in the third where she collected nine of her kills. 

The Warriors trailed early in set one at 8-7 but 12 straight points as the Falcons committed six attack errors during that stretch.  A brief run from the Falcons cut the lead back to 19-12 but four more attack errors and a couple of kills from Cherilyn Ramsey lifted the Warriors to victory.  Florida College hit negative .109 for the set with 12 errors.

SWU finally got things cooking in the third as Hughey recorded over half of the team's 17 kills.  The team hit .316 for the set which was the best in the seven sets on the day.  The Warriors started the third set on an 11-0 run as Hughey collected four kills during the run.  Alysia Cruell served all 11 points and picked up a pair of aces as well as a kill.

In the second the Warriors had to rally to pull out the victory.  The Falcons took the early lead with an 8-4 advantage before seized the lead at 11-9 with a run of five straight points with Hughey and Cruell combining for three kills and FC committing two more errors.

Later in the set the Warriors held a narrow 18-17 lead before embarking on a six-point run to pull within one point of victory at 24-17.  Four straight points from Florida College forced SWU head coach Julia Reininga to call a timeout at 24-21 but that didn't end the rally.  The Falcons added three more points – two on SWU attack errors – and the set was tied at 24-24.  Megan Widener picked up a kill to pull within one again before Tori Wanner added a rare kill for the victory.

Cruell added 15 digs to her four service aces to her three kills in the match while Milica Stamenic had 12 digs.  Widener tallied 35 assists and three kills and narrowly missed out on a double-double with eight digs.  Hughey added nine digs to her kill total and also had six block assists.  Jacinta Hoffpauir added nine kills and three block assists as the team had 12 total block assists.

The Warriors will be back in action on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. to face Roosevelt before battling the hosts Northwood at 1:45 p.m.

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