PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- It looked like the University of Pikeville volleyball team was on its way to its first Mid-South Conference win of the season after beating Shawnee State 25-17 in the first set, but the Bears from Portsmouth, Ohio stormed back for a 3-1 win on Thursday night at UPIKE Gym.

UPIKE hit .276 as a team in the successful opening set, but its hitting marks sank off from there, finishing up at .177 for the match. Shawnee State was consistent most of the match, tallying a .365 hitting percentage.

Connor Cook paced UPIKE (9-11, 0-7 MSC) with 14 kills, followed by Sydney Hall with 11 and Kaitlyn Welsh chipped in with eight. Savanna Zakman dished out 36 assists, Rachel Murphy found 10 digs and both Hall and Cassidy Tackett sent back three blocks.

The two attackers giving UPIKE the most problems were Christina Shelton and Lauren Helbig who both finished with 18 kills. Helbig attacked at a .593 clip and Shelton was at .375. Bonnie Huesing dished out 43 assists, libero Madison Smith had 13 digs and Helbig paced SSU (10-7, 2-5 MSC) with four blocks.

UPIKE jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the first set and never looked back, leading by as many as nine points at 22-13. Cook's kill at 24-17 off a pass from Zakman gave Pikeville the win.

The second set was not as kind as SSU went on a 10-0 run halfway through the set on its way to a lopsided 25-16 win. UPIKE got a good chance to take back the lead in the third set when it led 19-15 late in the frame. Shawnee State fought back though, getting within one at 24-23.

From there, UPIKE scored just one more point as back to back kills from Shelton gave SSU the come-from-behind win at 27-25. Drained from the long set, UPIKE fell behind 19-10 in the fourth before ultimately losing 25-19.

Up Next: UPIKE travels to Cumberland at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday in Lebanon, Tenn.   

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