PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- It may have taken nearly two hours, but at the end of the match it was a senior night to remember for the University of Pikeville volleyball team as it outlasted Kentucky Christian 3-1 on Tuesday night at UPIKE Gym.

Scores in the tightly contested match went 25-22, 15-25, 34-32 and 25-23. Cassidy Tackett led the Bears with a career-high 15 kills, while Kaitlyn Welsh chipped in with 13 and Connor Cook and Sydney Hall had 11 kills each.

Savanna Zakman dished out 47 assists, Rachel Murphy found 19 digs and Amari Eadie sent back eight blocks to help hold off the Knights.

Prior to the match the team honored its three seniors - Hall, Murphy and Welsh - who would all go on to lead the charge against KCU.

The third set was the longest of the season as the Bears had to fight back from match point six times past regulation. The latest came at 31-30, but UPIKE tied the set on a kill from Cook, then after KCU tied things itself at 32-32, the Bears got back-to-back kills from Zakman and Hall to finally bring the frame to a close.

Prior to that UPIKE (16-13) had won a first set in which it never tallied a lead of more than three points. In fact, Kentucky Christian (20-11) led 19-16 before the Bears went on a 4-0 run out of a timeout. Once the set was tied a 22 all, UPIKE used a 3-0 run to end it with two kills by Welsh and an ace by Cecilia Ray.

The Bears weren't solid in the second set, hitting just -.138 as a team as they fell behind by as many as 10 points on the way to a 25-15 loss. But the fourth set mirrored the opener as UPIKE broke open a 12-12 tie with a 4-0 run and never relinquished the lead again, despite leading just 22-20 down the stretch.

UP NEXT

UPIKE returns to action on Nov. 4 in the opening round of the Mid-South Conference Tournament in Bowling Green, Ky.

-UPIKE-