University of Mount Olive won the opening set however King University came back to take the final three sets as the Trojans fell 24-26, 18-25, 12-25, 14-25 Saturday afternoon in Kornegay Arena in Conference Carolinas women's volleyball. The first set saw nine different lead changes as the Trojans took control late to win the opening set.
Mount Olive (7-22 Overall, 3-11 Conference Carolinas) took back control of the first set with a quick three point run that included kills by Alysha Burnett and Dezirae Mackey as well as an ace by Burnett. The lead proceeded to change hands eight times before an attack error by King (18-10, 10-4) tied the set at 24.
Trojan Montgomery Register recorded a kill to give a one point lead to Mount Olive and forced the Tornado to take a time out. Casey Fiechter out of the timeout hit a perfect serve to pick up an ace and win the set for the Trojans.
In the second set Mount Olive was never able to gather more than a one point lead on the Tornado. King pulled out eight unanswered point in the middle of the match all starting with the service from Olivia Underwood. This allowed King to pull away and the Trojans could not recover in the second set.
The third set King used another 8-0 run against the Trojans to push their lead out to 20-13 and moved out ahead two sets to one.
The final set did see much of the same against Mount Olive as King gained three quick points early in the set. Mount Olive did tie the set at four on two Tornado errors, but King won the next point and never allowed the Trojans to tie the set again. The closest the Trojans came after the tie early in the set was a 20-13 score in favor of King.
Register and Sarah Watkins finished with a team high seven kills. Aubrey McKinney had three aces to complement her 16 assists. Burnett had four kills and 12 digs for the afternoon.
Mount Olive has concluded its regular season at home and will finish up the season on the road with two road contests next week. The Trojans will travel to North Greenville University on Friday at 7 p.m. then stay in South Carolina to face Southern Wesleyan University on Saturday at 2 p.m.