Williams Falls in Four Sets to Freed-Hardeman

The Williams Baptist University women's volleyball team dropped a non-conference volleyball match to Freed-Hardeman 25-19, 25-21, 25018, 25-13 Friday night at the Southerland-Mabee Center.

Williams (0-6) was led by Hope Raymond and Halli Bollinger-Yount, who finished with eight kills each. Tineligh Ruhman added six kills while Laykin Harkcom and Krista Jones added four each. Harkcom also led the way with 26 assists and 14 digs, while Faith Raymond and Jones chipped in with 11 digs each. 

In the opening set the Lions (8-2) led by six at 20-14 before Williams was able to close the gap to 20-17 thanks to a pair of aces from Alonna Thomas. Freed-Hardeman managed to close out the set for the win, but the Eagles used the momentum shift to their advantage as both squads battled back and forth.

Williams trailed 8-5 early on, but rallied to take a 13-10 behind the strong serve of Faith Raymond. The squads traded rallies and were tied at 18-18 when a service error from Freed-Hardeman gave Williams a chance to pull ahead. 

The Lions faltered with an attack error on the next error and Harckom put down a thunderous attack to force a Lions timeout. Hope Raymond continued the momentum out of the break with another kill to give WBU a 22-18 lead.

Two more attack errors from the Lions and a service error helped give Williams the set and tie the match at a game each.

FHU rebounded in the third set and quickly jumped out to a 8-1 advantage, but the Eagles slowly worked their way back into the set and went on a 7-0 run to get within 17-16. They would get no closer, however, as Freed-Hardeman was able to regain the momentum and close out the set by scoring eight of the final 10 points. 

The fourth set belonged entirely to FHU as they wasted little time in building a 15-7 lead and never allowed Williams to find any rhythm offensively. 

WBU is a private, Christian university in Walnut Ridge.