UPIKE Athletics

The University of Pikeville completed the first undefeated season by an AAC team in league play in seven years with a 3-0 win over Johnson (Tenn.) University on Saturday morning in the UPike Gym.
 
The Bears will take a 26-3 record into the AAC tournament after going 19-0 in league play. The last AAC team to had a perfect record in the league was Reinhardt (Ga.), which went 21-0 in the 2019 season.
 
UPike is now 20-1 in three-set matches and has gone 25-4 in each of the first two sets this season.
 
Finally, the Bears will take a 20-match winning streak in the postseason and completed the first undefeated home season in school history, going 12-0 in the UPike Gym.
 
Senior Allyah Tokelau led the way with 15 kills and a .565 hitting percentage. Junior Olivia Chapman followed with 11 kills, no errors, and a .688 percentage. Junior Cassidy Rivas had nine kills, sophomore JLynn Risner seven and senior Lanie Hawley six.
 
Senior setting Chloie Brinton had 36 assists. She will enter the AAC tournament only 17 assists from setting a new single-season record for the school. Additionally, she had and junior Lyla Reed had two service aces.
 
Reed led the club with 11 digs, while freshman Baylee Moore added 10.
 
With the regular season finished, the Bears will next play in the AAC tournament on Friday, Nov. 13 in the MeadowView Conference Resort and Convention Center in Kingsport, Tenn. They will play the winner of the match between seeds 7 and 10, which will be played on Thursday, Nov. 12.
 
Bears 25, Royals 16: The teams were tied five times early, including at 7-7. That's when UPike had its first run, scoring five of six points to move ahead 12-8. The Bears had four kills, with Chapman having two of them. With Brinton serving, UPike scored five straight, all on kills, to move ahead 17-10. Another 5-0 stretch, with Rivas and Tokelau having two kills each, pushed the lead to 21-13. A Risner kill finished the set.
 
Bears 25, Royals 8: The Bears stormed out of the gate in the second set with the first seven points. It began with a Brinton ace, her first of two in the run. Tokelau had a pair of kills while Chapman added one. A Rivas block made it 7-0. It never got closer. The Bears held leads of 16-2 and 20-3 en route to the win. Tokelau had seven kills, as five Bears scored in the set with a .625 hitting percentage.
 
Bears 25, Royals 11: UPike led 14-11 and, behind the serving of Brinton, finished it with the final 11 points of the day. Chapman had three kills while Rivas and Tokelau added two. The Bears had 17 kills in the third set alone.