BUENA VISTA, Va. – Despite overcoming a 13-6 deficit in the third set, the Randolph College volleyball team ultimately fell to host Southern Virginia University, 3-0 (17-25, 11-25, 22-25) on Tuesday evening.

The WildCats drop to 8-17 on the season and return to conference play on Friday, Oct. 27 when they travel across town to Lynchburg College for a 7 p.m. contest.

After a close battle in the opening set, Southern Virginia rallied on a 3-0 run to take the lead, 13-8, but the WildCats responded with a 4-0 burst of their own to slice the deficit to 13-12 and continued to trail the Knights by a margin of two points before leveling the score to 16-all. However, a 6-0 run by the Knights pushed them ahead, 22-16, forcing Randolph to take a timeout. Still, Southern Virginia could not be caught as a 3-1 spurt landed the Knights the 25-17 set win.

The second set saw WildCats with a 4-3 edge but the Knights quickly erased Randolph's lead with a 5-0 run. Southern Virginia maintained its momentum as the Knights extended their lead to a commanding 22-9 margin. Randolph would manage to collect two more points before the Knights drilled the three points needed to cruise to a 25-11 triumph.

Southern Virginia stormed ahead with a comfortable 13-6 lead in the final set but Randolph soon found its groove as the WildCats chipped away the point gap, roping the score to 17-13. The Knights were able to extend their lead to 22-15 before Randolph pulled out a 7-2 run to make it a 24-22 score. However, after a brief timeout by the Knights, Southern Virginia came back to land the final kill that would clinch the match victory.

Autumn Troxell (Front Royal, Va./Warren County) floored eight kills for the Randolph offense while Rebecca Lesnak (Blountville, Tenn./Sullivan Central) drilled five kills and Shelby Bergum (Terrebonne, Ore./Redmond) delivered three. Kennedy Webb (Nassawadox, Va./Northampton) recorded 15 digs for the defense while Brooks Gillerlain (Suffolk, Va./Nansemond-Suffolk Academy) dished out 16 assists in the loss.