MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. -- Through the first match of the weekend, UPIKE volleyball looked like it shook off the demons of its tough loss on Thursday. However, but it was unable to keep the wheels turning and walked away from Milligan Madness with one win in four matches.

The Bears (4-6) defeated Midway on Friday to open the weekend, but then dropped three straight to Bryan, Union, and St. Francis (Ind.).

Despite the undesired outcomes, sophomore libero Brittany Reels walked away with all-tournament honors. Across the four matches, she had a team-high 52 digs, four service aces, and three kills.

UPIKE vs Midway

​​​​​​​Pikeville needed a set to dust off the cobwebs from Thursday, dropping the first set in extra points, 26-24. However, UPIKE came back to win the match in four sets, 3-1 (24-26, 25-23, 25-21, 25-15).

But then the UPIKE defense kicked into high gear, holding the Eagles (0-4) to a -.025 and .029 attack percentage in sets two and three, respectively.

Without Noelani Simpson to provide an outlet for the Bear offense, most of the action came through the middle hitter tandem of Amanda Gooding and Cassie Jones. Gooding had a team-high 10 kills in the match, while Jones added eight.

The offense led the way in the fourth set as the Bears hit a season-high .400 in the decisive set. Hunter Clewis had four of her nine kills in the fourth set.

​​​​​​​UPIKE vs Bryan

Unfortunately, the momentum didn't continue for UPIKE later that Friday night. Bryan took control of the match early and didn't look back to sweep the Bears (17-25, 13-25, 15-25).

Bryan (3-5) outhit Pikeville in each set by at least 160 percentage points and only committed 11 errors throughout the match. 

The Bears held a 10-7 lead in the first set before the Lions rallied with nine straight points. Their lead would spread to as much as nine points toward the tail end of the set before finishing it.

That early lead in set one would be the only lead UPIKE saw that night, but the second and third sets were similar in that the Bears hung around with the Lions before a run separated the two teams.

​​​​​​​Gooding provided most of the offense for Pikeville with nine kills.

​​​​​​​UPIKE vs Union

​​​​​​​Fatique began to be a factor in the third match of the tournament as it was UPIKE's fourth match in just 38 hours, and only 13 hours the previous one started.

Union (2-7) took advantage to sweep the Bears 11-25, 16-25, 10-25.

​​​​​​​Pikeville committed 23 errors on just 18 kills, the first time the team had committed more errors than kills in a match this season.

Union had its balanced offense clicking from the start. The Bulldogs marched out to a 8-3 lead in the first set and never trailed throughout the match.

No Bulldog hitter had more than seven kills, but five had at least four to even out the attack and keep the Bears' defense on its heels. 

​​​​​​​UPIKE vs St. Francis (Ind.)

The Bears finished the weekend in a slightly better fashion as the offense regained a bit of its footing, but UPIKE still got swept by St. Francis 17-25, 21-25, 13-25.

Emilee Little had her best match of the weekend against the Cougars, turning eight error-free attacks into six kills, easily the most efficient outing of the tournament for Pikeville.

Set two was the closest that UPIKE got to a set victory after its first match on the weekend, carrying a lead out as far as 20-19. The Cougars rallied soon after, winning six of the final seven points to take the two-set advantage.

The trio of Megan Diagostino, Cassidy Rammel and Kendra Siefring led the way for St. Francis with nine, eight and eight kills each, respectively.

​​​​​​​UPIKE will finally have a few days to rest before opening its conference season against Campbellsville at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in UPIKE Gym.