FAIRMONT, WV. -- The Lenoir-Rhyne Volleyball team finished the opening weekend strong, notching victories over Virginia Union and Slippery Rock to move to 4-0 at the Fairmont State Volleyball Classic. This is the first time the Bears are 4-0 since the 2019 season, when they opened with a five-game winning streak.

Game one vs Virginia Union

In the first match up between these teams since 2010, the Bears cruised to victory with a 25-16, 25-19 and 25-10 sweep. In the opening set, Virginia Union had a 8-7 lead before the Bears scored five straight points, helped in part by two service aces from Sydney Karjala. After Virginia Union cut the lead to 16-12, the Bears went on their second 5-0 run to put the set away. 

The second set was back and forth, as LR had a slight 18-17 lead before scoring five of the next six points, led by a pair of kills from Kayli Cleaver to pull away with a 25-19 win. The third set was all Bears as LR scored 11 of  the first 12 points in the match, to cruising to their second sweep of the season. 

It was a balanced attack for the Bears as Cleaver and Aasia McNeill each had nine kills, while Averie Dale tallied six. McNeill led the team with 11 digs, while Rachel Wildermuth had 13 assists, 8 digs and 5 service aces in the contest. 

Game two vs Slippery Rock

The first set did not go as planned, as Slippery Rock went on a 11-0 run to take an early 11-1 lead.  The Bears battled back, as down 16-5 they scored seven in a row to cut the lead to 16-12. However the Bears could not come all the way back as with the score at 23-19, Slippey Rock scored the last two points to take the opening set 25-19. This was only the second set the Bears dropped all weekend. 

Second set was full of big runs for each team, but a kill from Wildermuth gave the Bears a 26-24 win to even the match. Both teams struggled in the second set as each team tallied seven errors. 

With the game tied at one set a piece, the Bears hit .353 in the third set to take a 2-1 lead, coming away with a 25-14 victory. Cleaver had five of her team high 16 kills in the set to lead the Bears.

In the fourth set, The Bears had to battle back once again. Down 12-5 at one point in the set, LR outscored Slippery Rock 20-10 the rest of the way to win 25-22. Ella Wimsatt had three kills in a span of five straight points to help the Bears mount the comeback and complete the sweep. The Lenoir-Rhyne ended up scoring the last four points of the match as Jenna Vogen finished the weekend with a service ace to give the Bears the win. 

Cleaver lead the Bears with 16 kills while Vogen had 13. Lenoir-Rhyne also had ten blocks on the day, with six from Dale. Hadley Prince had 23 digs to lead the team.

Lenoir-Rhyne return to Hickory for their home and SAC opener on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. against Coker.