Winston-Salem State (4-16) showed a lot of fight, Friday evening when the team took a 3-1 loss to the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats (7-11, 3-1 MEAC). The Lady Rams gave the Wildcats all they could handle challenging the second best team in the MEAC Southern Division in all three sets and snapping a 15-set losing skid. However, the effort was not enough as the Lady Rams fell to the Wildcats, 17-25, 25-23, 11-25, and 21-25.

The magic of Whitaker Gymnasium along with a raucous crowd gave the Lady Rams a big lift all night long as the team played one of its best matches of the season. As a team, the Lady Rams notched 39 kills in 122 total attacks for a .172 attack percentage, the team’s third best rate of the season. Leading the charge for the Lady Rams was sophomore hitter Ashley Harris who notched 11 kills in the match, one shy of tying a team season-high. Senior utility Valentina Pushkina added eight kills in the match as well. WSSU freshman setter Alexandria Brown totaled 28 assists in the match.

The first set of the match was a tough one for the Lady Rams as the team was handcuffed by an early nine-point deficit and could not recover. The second set marked one of the best played efforts of the season for the Lady Rams as the team clawed its way from a 4-10 deficit in the early going. The team ran off seven unanswered point to take a 21-20 lead from the Wildcats and held on for the win in one of the most exciting efforts of the season. The effort left the Lady Rams drained in the third set as the Wildcats took a 25-11 win over the Lady Rams in the third set of the match.

The Lady Rams dug deep to find a gallant effort in the fourth and final set of the match as the cut an 11-19 deficit down to just three points, 21-24, but could not stop the final Wildcat kill that ended the match.