GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum College volleyball team split a pair of matches in day one of the South Atlantic Conference/Peach Belt Conference Crossover, which was held at Pioneer Arena on the TC campus.

Tusculum lost a five-set thriller to USC Aiken in the first match of the day, but bounced back with a 3-1 win over Georgia College (9-5) in the night-cap.  In their first match of the day, Georgia College edged Mars Hill University in a 3-2 thriller. MHU would drop the final match of the day 3-1 to USC Aiken (15-3).

USC Aiken and Georgia College will move onto Jefferson City, Tennessee for matches against Carson-Newman University and Lincoln Memorial University on Saturday.  TC and Mars Hill will face Augusta University and Lander University in Saturday matches at Pioneer Arena.

USC Aiken 3, Tusculum 2

Taylor Stratton recorded 22 kills and 15 digs in leading USC Aiken to a 3-2 victory at Tusculum.

The Pacers (14-3) won the match by scores of 20-25, 25-11, 25-20, 21-25, 15-9 to record their fourth consecutive win.

USCA's Julia Forster added 13 kills, while Shawn Hotson accounted for a dozen kills, nine digs and four blocks.  Emily Teelon also posted a double-double with 51 assists and 12 digs, while Danielle Mercer led the Pacers with 22 digs.

Cassie Born paced the Pioneers with 11 kills and Sarah Bouley contributed 10 kills and seven digs.  The setter duo of Shannon Murphy and Hallie Zumack dished out 20 and 18 assists, respectively for Tusculum.

In the opening set, Tusculum recorded four blocks and took advantage of 15 Aiken hitting errors in claiming a 25-20 win for the first frame.  USC Aiken posted a minus-.062 attack percentage, but TC did not fair much better hitting .100.  Trailing 7-5, the Pioneers used an 11-4 run to take a 16-11 following a solo block from Kaily Weiss.  USCA trimmed the deficit to 19-16, but that would be as close as the Pacers would get.

USC Aiken bounced jumping out to an 11-4 lead and never looked back in claiming the second set 25-11.  After hitting for minus numbers in the first, the Pacers tallied 13 kills in their 25 attacks with two errors for a .440 hitting percentage.  TC had eight kills with eight errors in their 28 attacks, while posting a sideout percentage of 29 percent.  Stratton led the charge with six kills and Hotson added four kills for the Pacers.

The third set was a back and forth battle which saw four lead changes and 13 ties, with the last of those coming at 15-15.  From there, the Pacers finished the set with a 10-5 run, including a kill by Stratton on set point.

Tusculum tied the match at two sets each with a 25-21 win in the fourth frame.  The Pioneers bolted out to a 19-12 lead but had to hold off a furious USCA rally as Mariah Lewis posted a kill on set point to send the contest to a deciding frame.

In the first set, the Pacers never trailed scoring the first three points of the frame only to see TC tie the set at 6-6.  With the score tied at 8-8, USC Aiken scored four straight points to spark a 9-3 outburst to seal the victory.

Tusculum's Melissa Mazur led all players with 29 digs as the Pioneers finished with 75 digs as a team in the match.

USC Aiken finished the match with 65 kills and 31 errors in their 185 attempts for a .184 hitting percentage. Tusculum hit .116 with 47 kills, 28 errors and 164 total attacks.  Both teams finished with seven team blocks each (2 solos, 10 assists).

Tusculum 3, Georgia College 1

Sarah Bouley recorded 13 kills, 11 digs and finished with a .407 hitting percentage in leading Tusculum to a 3-1 win over Georgia College.  The Pioneers won the match by scores of 20-25, 25-19, 27-25, 25-22.

Tusculum's Mariah Lewis added a dozen kills and five blocks, while Cassie Born posted 10 kills in the TC victory.

Ebony Powers led the Bobcats with 16 kills and four blocks, while Caroline Long and Taylor Svehla tallied 11 and 10 kills, respectively.

In the first set, Georgia College recorded five of its 12 team blocks, including three each from Blake Willoughby and Long as the Bobcats prevailed 25-20. GC led throughout most of the frame, including its largest lead at 16-9.  The Pioneers battled back using a 9-3 run to trim the deficit to 19-18.  With GC leading 20-19, the Bobcats closed out the frame with a 5-1 run, including a kill from Long and a pair of blocks down the stretch.

Tusculum answered in the second set as the Pioneers scored the first six points and led wire-to-wire to win 25-19 and level the match at a set apiece.  TC recorded 19 kills, three errors and 39 total attacks for a .410 hitting percentage.  Born paced the home team with five kills while Bouley tallied four kills in her eight total attacks (.500).

In the third set, Tusculum opened up a 20-14 lead advantage, but Georgia College roared back and tied the set at 22-22.  The score would be tied three more times, including 25-25 as Bouley recorded a kill to fight off set point. TC won the next two points thanks to a GC attack error and a Mariah Lewis kill on set point as the Pioneers prevailed 27-25 to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

Tusculum never trailed in the fourth as the Pioneers moved out to a 3-0 lead and led 17-10 thanks to a solo block from Laryssa Welch.  Bouley made it 23-17 following her service ace, but the Bobcats made one last push scoring four straight points, including kills from Willoughby and Long to trim the TC lead to 23-21.  But Garnett recorded a pair of kills, including one on match point as TC claimed the fourth set 25-22.

TC setter Shannon Murphy led the Pioneers with 384 assists, while teammate Hallie Zumack contributed 21 helpers and eight digs.  TC's Melissa Mazur posted 24 digs while her GC counterpart also tallied 24 digs, defensively.

The Pioneers finished the match with 66 kills, 27 errors and 164 total attacks for their .238 hitting percentage.  The Bobcats tallied 49 kills, 18 errors and 143 attempts in hitting .217 for the match.  TC edged Georgia College 67-63 in digs, while GC owned a 12-8 advantage in blocks.