Ashley Sarmiento dished out 50 assists and Caitlyn Dean recorded 40 digs to help Tusculum College to a 3-1 win over Anderson University in a South Atlantic Conference volleyball match Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Arena. Set scores were 25-23, 19-25, 25-20 and 25-22.

The Pioneers (21-5 overall, 15-2 SAC), who have already secured the second seed in the upcoming Food Lion SAC Tournament, finished their home schedule with a 10-1 record and have won 14 of their last 16 matches overall. The Trojans, who entered the day tied for fifth in the SAC standings, dropped to 17-12 overall and 8-8 in the SAC with the loss.

Sarmiento's 50 assists were one shy of her season and career high of 51 set in five-set matches against King on September 21 and Lees-McRae on October 16. Dean reached the 40-dig mark for the second time this season as the Pioneers set a team season high with 108 digs in the match.

Alyssa Raterman paced the Tusculum attack with 13 kills while Sam Underwood also reached double figures with 11 kills to go along with 13 digs. Anderson was led by Jamie Lancaster who had a match-high 19 kills and also added 21 digs.

The Pioneers survived a late Trojan run in the first set to come away with the 25-23 victory, but Anderson used seven kills from Lancaster and five from Tori Calhoon to earn a 25-19 win in set two and even the match at 1-1. Tusculum claimed the third set 25-20 thanks to four kills from Underwood to take a 2-1 lead into the fourth set.

In the fourth set, the Pioneers broke a 19-19 tie with three straight points, on a kill by Underwood, a service ace by Melanie Gibson and a kill by Bailee Price. The Trojans responded as Lindsay Doggett recorded a kill and followed up with a service ace to cut the Pioneer lead to 22-21. After an exchange of kills by Underwood and Lancaster left the Pioneers ahead 23-22, Tusculum put the match away on kills by Price and Underwood to claim the 25-22 victory.

Price finished with nine kills for Tusculum in the match, as did Rhayne Smitherman and Allyson Ray. Joining Dean and Underwood in double figures in digs were Price with 18, Sarmiento with 14 and Gibson with 10.

Calhoon was the only other Trojan to approach double figures in kills, finishing with nine. Adria Mullaney had a team-high 23 digs along with four service aces for Anderson, while Doggett had 20 digs and dished out 36 assists. Tiffany Rowe had five blocks (four solo) to lead all players in the match.

The Pioneers close out their SAC regular-season schedule Tuesday night at Lincoln Memorial University, beginning at 6:30 p.m.