LYNCHBURG, Va- The Randolph men's volleyball team hosted its final tri-match of the season on Saturday as the WildCats welcomed The University of Lynchburg and Regent University. The 'Cats dropped the first match to the Hornets 3-1 (24-26, 25-16, 25-23, 25-15) and defeated the Royals 3-0 (25-8, 25-16, 25-19) in their second match of the day.

Randolph's overall record now stands at 15-10. The WildCats are 6-6 in ODAC play.

Against the Royals, Randolph got out to a 6-1 lead in the first set. Regent closed to within three points at 7-4 but the WildCats pulled away with an 18-4 run to win the set 25-8.

The WildCats started the second set with a 7-2 lead but the Royals rallied to tie the frame at 7-7. After the WildCats pulled ahead 9-7, Regent tied the set up again at 9-9. The 'Cats pushed forward with a 4-0 run to lead 13-9. The Royals came back to make it a two-point match at 15-13. Randolph's 10-3 run in the end gave it a 25-16 set win.

Regent started the third set leading 5-1. The WildCats came back to close to 6-5. After a kill by Regent's Miguel Harris made it 7-5, the 'Cats rattled off an 8-0 run to lead 13-7. Randolph maintained its lead for the remainder of the frame as it went on to win 25-19.

Derek Smith (Alexandria, Va./Homeschool) led the WildCats with five kills. Ian Arce (Sneads Ferry, N.C./Dixon HS) led in assists with 12. Noah May (Westerville, OH/Thomas Worthington HS) had four block assists and four digs. Addison Corey (Loxahatchee, Fla/Seminole Ridge) led in digs with six.

In the Lynchburg match, the Hornets led 3-0 to start the first set. The Lynchburg lead grew to six points at 18-12. The WildCats came back with an 11-4 run to take its first lead of the set at 24-22. Lynchburg, however, scored the last four points to win the frame 26-24.

With the second set tied at 5-5, the WildCats used an 8-0 run to go ahead 13-5. Randolph's lead was enough to stay ahead of the Hornets as it went on to win 25-16 to even the match at 1-1.

The Hornets led 4-1 in the third set until the WildCats came back to go up 5-4. The two teams exchanged leads with Lynchburg eventually going ahead 12-9. Randolph tied the set three times with the final time coming at 15-15. After the Hornets went up 21-17, the 'Cats came back to tie once again with this time happening at 22-22. Lynchburg outscored Randolph 3-1 to win 25-23.

Lynchburg had an early lead in the fourth set but Randolph came back to go ahead 6-4. The WildCats led 8-7 but the Hornets rattled off an 11-4 run to go ahead 18-12. With the score standing at 19-15, Lynchburg closed out the set with a 6-0 run to win the frame 25-15.

Samuel Brown (Virginia Beach, Va./First Colonial) led Randolph with nine kills to go with eight digs. Conner Maher (Buckeye, Ariz./Odyssey Institute) totaled 28 assists.
Samuel Looney (Fort Worth Texas/Trinity Valley HS) and Ahmed Diallo (Aurora, Colo./Overland HS) both finished with a team-high nine digs with Diallo adding four block assists. Zachary Septoff (Cumberland, Md.) also had four block assists along with two solo blocks.

The WildCats travel to Averett on Wednesday. Match time is set for 6:00 p.m.