CHARLOTTE, N.C. --- The Tusculum College volleyball team rallied from a 2-1 deficit to comeback and defeat Queens University of Charlotte 3-2 (26-24, 13-25, 21-25, 25-18, 15-9) on Saturday afternoon. Sabrina Schleuger and Melissa Mazur led the Pioneers (6-4, 4-3 South Atlantic Conference) with 12 kills and a match-high 25 digs respectively.

In the fifth set, Queens (4-7, 3-4) jumped out to a 6-3 lead on kills from Jessica Raines and Kelsey McCormick. TC answered with kills from Sarah Bouley and Schleuger, but an attack error stretched Queens' advantage out to 7-5. The Pioneers then scored the next four points to jump ahead 9-7. The Royals committed three attack errors during that stretch.

Elizabeth Bailkowski snapped the run with a kill, but TC answered with a 3-0 spurt to take a commanding 12-8 lead. After the Royals got their final point of the match on a service error, the Pioneers scored three-straight to close out the frame. Kailey Weiss finished the match with a kill as TC completed the comeback and earned the five-set win. Tusculum hit a match-high .250 during the final stanza.

Bouley finished with 11 kills to follow up her career-high 14 last night at Catawba. Danae Stauffer found the floor for seven kills while Mariah Lewis had six off the bench. Hannah Berling had a double-double with a match-high 32 assists and 10 digs. Kayla Hartley also dug-up 10 balls.

The first set featured 10 ties and five lead changes. A 7-1 run helped the Royals build an 8-3 lead and later they held an 11-5 advantage. However, TC reeled off six-straight points off the service of Mazur to tie the game at 11-11. The Pioneers then scored three of the next four and led 14-12.

The Royals responded with a 5-0 spurt to re-take the lead at 17-14, but the Pioneers turned around and used a 4-0 run to take an 18-17 advantage. Later in the frame with the score tied at 21-21, TC earned set point with three-straight points and led 24-21. The Royals fought it off three times to tie the match at 24-24, but back-to-back attack errors handed Tusculum the first game.

Queens fought back and won the next two games, including the second by 12 points. TC held an early 6-3 lead in the fourth, and used an 8-1 run to turn an 8-7 lead to 15-8. The Pioneers led 21-16 off a kill by Lewis and later earned set point off a Schleuger kill. The Royals were only able to fight it off once as Schleuger closed out the frame with a kill to send the match to the decisive fifth set.

Raines and Meredith Jones each registered a match-high 13 kills for Queens while Rebecca Cochran had 12. Megan Mancini had 24 digs and Sydney Kunz handed out 29 assists.

The Pioneers will be back in action on Friday night when they head to Hickory, North Carolina to take on Lenoir-Rhyne University. First serve is set for 7 p.m.