CONWAY, Ark. - The Birmingham-Southern volleyball team began the second half of their conference season against the Hendrix Warriors. The Panthers battled in four sets to eventually take the win, after dropping set one to the Warriors. Kennedy Dickens led with 13 kills and Leah Nielsen led with 6 blocks. 

Set one started with Hendrix in the lead at 5-1, but was closed back up to only a 10-8 lead by the Warriors. A kill from Kennedy Dickens and back to back blocks from Leah Nielsen and Kylie Wilhelmi put the Panthers behind by two at 13-11. BSC continued to fight throughout the set, but were always a point or two behind the Warriors and eventually fell 25-20 in set one. 

The Panthers started off behind again in set two, but things quickly changed when they were down 10-6. Birmingham-Southern found their momentum and ran with it, going on 9 point run to take their first lead of the set at 15-10. Kennedy Dickens attributed two kills to that run with a lot of added errors from the Warriors. The Panthers continued their push making it 19-12 and then eventually 22-13 with a kill from Kylie Wilhelmi, an ace from Kate Powell and a block from Leah Nielsen and Ainsley Schultz. Kennedy Dickens ended the set in a kill for the Panthers to take it 25-18.

Birmingham-Southern took their lead earlier on in set three at 5-4. Two kills each from Leah Nielsen and Gigi Fields, and a service ace from Alyssa Coats put the Panthers up 14-8 over the Warriors. Even with Hendrix trying to close that gap of a lead, BSC pushed on further with a kill from Kylie Wilhelmi that made it 19-17. Alyssa Coats and Ainsley Schultz ended set three with back to back kills, ending it 25-22.

Set four started off with a lot of back and forth play. Both teams traded two points at a time with the Warriors eventually taking a long lead at 15-13. The Panthers were able to fight back and take three straight points to gain the lead 16-15. A kill from Leah Nielsen and a ball handling error from the Warriors pushed BSC to 19-17. Birmingham-Southern took the next six out of seven points to end the set 25-20 with a service ace from Abby Dunford. 

Records
#25 Birmingham-Southern 13-3 (7-1 SAA), Hendrix 8-7 (3-5 SAA)

Set Summary
SET ONE: 25-20 Hendrix
SET TWO: 25-18 Birmingham-Southern
SET THREE: 25-22 Birmingham-Southern
SET FOUR: 25-20 Birmingham-Southern

Up next
The Panthers will play their next match on the road against Rhodes on Sunday, October 9 at 12 p.m. in Memphis, Tenn.