LAKE WALES, Fla. – Warner University women's volleyball team picked up their fifth Sun Conference victory of the season on Friday night with a dramatic five-set thriller over Webber International University. The Lady Royals outlasted the Warriors 3-2 (25-16, 23-25, 25-12, 21-25, 15-12) to improve to 6-8 overall in 2014 and 5-2 in league play. The Warriors fall to 8-12 overall and 2-5 in league play.
It was a hot start for the Lady Royals as they took the opening set behind a .323 hitting percentage as a team and never trailed. In the second set, the Warriors jumped out to an early lead and never trailed to even up the match at 1-1.
Warner dominated the third set, 25-12, behind a .545 hitting percentage as a team with just two attack errors. Facing a 2-1 deficit, the Warriors responded in the third set winning 25-21. The two sides exchanged a lead for the first time in the match and battled to three tie scores.
In the fifth and final set, the Warriors got off to a 3-0 start forcing head coach Chrissy Moskovits to call a timeout. Coming out of the timeout the Lady Royals got on the scoreboard but trailed by as many as four in the early goings of the set. Trailing 6-2, Tiffani Pate sparked a 7-1 run that gave Warner a 9-7 lead. The two sides traded blows resulting in three tie scores in the second half of the set. Back to back Webber errors broke a 12-12 tie and gave Warner a match point opportunity 14-12. After a Webber timeout, Marisa Moralobo took a pass from Rachel Stanton and buried a kill through the Webber defense to clinch the set and the match for the Lady Royals.
Moralobo had a solid game finishing with 16 kills and 17 digs. Adrienne Czaplewski led all players with 17 kills in the match. She also added two service aces and 13 digs. Tiffani Pate had the best hitting night of any Lady Royal, posting a .333 hitting percentage with 11 kills to her tally. Pate also led the Warner effort at the net with two solo blocks and four block assists.
Rachel Stanton had a season-high 49 assists in the win and had 13 digs as well. Libero Heather Lockwood finished with a season-high 25 digs.
It was the fourth straight regular season match between the Lady Royals and Warriors to go to five sets. Each team has won two of the four matches in that span.
The Lady Royals return to the Turner Athletic Center next Saturday, Oct. 11, when they will step out of NAIA competition and welcome in NCAA-II Florida Institute of Technology. The match will start at 4 p.m.
