DANVILLE, Va. – The Randolph College volleyball team fell twice in its season opener at the Averett University Cougar Classic on Friday afternoon. The WildCats fell 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-17) to Southern Virginia University before dropping a 3-0 (25-13, 25-18, 25-14) decision to the host Cougars.

Game 1: Southern Virginia 3, Randolph 0

Despite a close score in the start of the first set, a small 3-0 run placed Southern Virginia ahead, 14-11. Randolph responded with a kill by Autumn Troxell (Front Royal, Va./Warren County) but the Knights managed to capitalize on several WildCat errors to run away with the lead once more, opening up an 18-13 gap and forced Randolph to take a timeout.

Although the Knights maintained the lead, the WildCats sliced the deficit to 24-21 off of back-to-back kills by Troxell and a block assist from Lauren Morgan (Bedford, Va./Liberty) and Taylor Webb (Nassawadox, Va./Northampton). However, Southern Virginia floored the final kill to take the set win.

Southern Virginia came out of the gates in the second stanza with a two-point lead over the WildCats, which it was able to maintain until an attack error and a Shelby Bergum (Terrebonne, Ore./Redmond) kill tied the score at 5-all. The Knights quickly made work of escaping the WildCats and pushed their lead to 13-7 off of a 4-0 burst. After calling a timeout, Randolph slowly chipped away at the Knights' lead, cutting a 10-point deficit to a 23-17 score but were unable to stop Southern Virginia from winning set two.

The final set saw the Knights jump out to a 4-1 advantage but the WildCats made quick work of leveling the score to 5-all off of their own 4-1 spurt. Even though Southern Virginia was able to shake off Randolph by pushing the lead to 17-10, the WildCats rattled off a 4-0 run to rope the score within three. Still, it would not be enough as the Knights were able to hold off Randolph to seal the final 25-17 score and the match victory.

Troxell led the team with seven kills, along with 11 digs with Webb adding six kills of her own and finishing with a double-double of 10 assists and 12 digs. Morgan and Olivia Pullin (Roanoke, Va./Patrick Henry) chipped in five kills apiece for Randolph while Brooks Gillerlain (Suffolk, Va./Nansemond-Suffolk Academy) concluded the match with a team-high 18 assists.

Game 2: Averett 3, Randolph 0

In the opening set the Cougars drilled out four points for an early lead before the WildCats pushed a 4-1 run to bring the score to 5-4. However, the Cougars would rattle off four points of their own to increase their lead and forcing Randolph into a timeout. Despite the WildCats' best efforts to catch up to the Cougars, Averett managed to push its lead until it secured the 25-13 set victory.

The teams started out on much more even footing in the second set, only being separated by a couple of points but soon Averett would push a 4-0 spurt to take the lead and would remain well ahead of the WIldCats by a margin of 10 (18-8). Randolph slowly chipped away at the Cougars' lead, trimming the deficit to 24-18 but would not get any further as Averett's Brianna Williams landed the set-winning kill.

The Cougars jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the third set and never looked back as they managed to keep a large margin ahead of the WildCats. Randolph was able to trim the score to 15-10 Averett but could not be stopped as the Cougars sealed the final set, 25-14, to win the match.

Troxell landed eight kills for the WildCats while Bergum recorded three kills. Defensively, Sam Verhaagen (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) collected 11 digs with Gillerlain adding in nine plus seven assists while Webb totaled two kills and eight assists.

Randolph closes out the Cougar Classic tomorrow when it takes on Roanoke College at 1 p.m. followed by a 3 p.m. match against William Peace College.