HARROGATE, Tenn. – The Newberry Wolves used a gritty and determined effort to hand the Lady Railsplitters a heartbreaking 3-2 loss in South Atlantic Conference volleyball action on Friday night at Mary Mars Gymnasium. The Wolves (13-10, 10-5 SAC) won the match by scores of 23-25, 30-28, 25-22, 13-25 and 15-11 to snap Lincoln Memorial's (17-4, 11-2 SAC) eight-game home winning streak, which dated back to the 2015 campaign.
 
The Lady Railsplitters and Wolves finished with nearly identical stat lines, but Newberry found a way to make the plays it needed late to hand LMU its first home loss since October 23, 2015.
 
The Lady Railsplitters accumulated 66 kills with 29 errors on a .194 attack percentage, 62 assists and 87 digs while posting the second-most block assists in program history with 30. In addition to that, Lincoln Memorial racked up eight service aces. On the other side, Newberry had 65 kills with 29 errors for a .187 attack percentage, 61 assists, 86 digs and 14 block assists.
 
Senior Liz Brock (Lima, Ohio) led the Lady Railsplitters with a career-high 23 kills on just 48 attempts for a .375 attack percentage. She also added 14 digs and five block assists. Her 23 kills were the most by an LMU player since Blaire Fowler erupted for 27 against Catawba in November of 2012.
 
Samantha Cash (New Carlisle, Ohio) chipped in 14 kills, nine assists, nine digs and four block assists, while Kiera Holland (Columbia, S.C.) added eight kills and seven digs. Jamie Jehne (Hollywood, Fla.) and Danielle Ged (Smyrna, Fla.) had seven kills apiece while combining for 13 block assists. Jehne had seven by herself, which is tied for the ninth-most ever by a Lady Railsplitter. Abby Cash (New Carlisle, Ohio) notched 50 assists and 21 digs, while Erica Whiteaker (Kingston Springs, Tenn.) tallied 18 digs and five aces.
 
Newberry put forth a number of standout performances as well. Logan Hayward compiled 20 kills on a match-leading 59 attempts to go along with 10 digs. Madison Darby-McClure had 14 kills and six block assists, while Toni-Anne Whitlow and Sidra Triplett tallied 11 and 10 kills apiece, respectively. Maggie Marsh led all players with 51 assists, while Kensley Jordan had a match-high 27 digs.
 
The opening set was tightly contested throughout as neither team established a lead larger than three points. The Lady Railsplitters held a 20-17 edge following a kill by Brock, but a pair of kills by Alexis Bryant drew the score even at 20 apiece. The set remained all tied up at 23-23 following a kill from Hayward, but a kill from Sam Cash followed by a Newberry ball-handling error capped the 25-23 LMU win.
 
The Lady Railsplitters trailed throughout the majority of the second set and faced a 21-16 deficit late after a Triplett kill. However, a 4-0 run pulled Lincoln Memorial within one at 21-20. The Lady Railsplitters could never quite break through and eventually had to stave off match point three different times before pulling ahead 28-27 on a Newberry attack error. The Lady Railsplitters looked to have completed the comeback on the ensuing rally, but a deep ball by Hayward landed just inside the line, sparking a 3-0 Newberry run that evened the match. The Wolves used back-to-back LMU miscues to dust off the 30-28 win.
 
Kills from Brock and Ged gave the Lady Railsplitters a 21-18 lead in the third set, and Lincoln Memorial would continue to cling to a three-point lead (22-19) on another kill from Brock. However, the Wolves used two kills from Hayward to power a 6-0 closing run, which gave the visitors a 2-1 lead with a 25-22 victory.
 
The Wolves opened up a 5-1 lead early in the fourth set before the Lady Railsplitters ripped off nine unanswered points on a long service run from Whiteaker that included three aces. Jehne also had two kills over that stretch. The end result of that set was never really in question after that, as the Lady Railsplitters pulled ahead 18-10 on another kill from Jehne. Lincoln Memorial won seven of the last eight points to claim a 25-13 win and force a fifth set.
 
Lincoln Memorial grabbed a 4-3 lead in the fifth set following a Darby-McClure service error, but the Wolves would assert control over the next passage with a 5-0 run. A kill by Marsh ended that flurry and made it 8-4 in favor of Newberry. The Lady Railsplitters fought and clawed their way back on numerous occasions, cutting the deficit to one at 9-8, 11-10 and 12-11. However, the Wolves would never relinquish the lead and used two straight LMU attack errors to finish off the 15-11 triumph.
 
The Wolves hit .280 in the decisive fifth frame with 10 kills, while the Lady Railsplitters mustered just five kills on a .038 clip.
 
With their loss and Wingate's win on Friday, the Lady Railsplitters slip into second place in the SAC standings with an 11-2 mark.
 
Lincoln Memorial will be back in action on Saturday at 2 p.m. when the Lady Railsplitters play host to the Anderson Trojans at Mary Mars Gymnasium.