LANGHORNE, PA –  The Cairn Women's Volleyball Team faced off against Delaware Valley University on Thursday night at the Mason Activity Center, defeating the Aggies in a scintillating 5 set match.
 
In the first set, the Aggies put together a commanding lead at 12-8 forcing a Cairn timeout. Having regrouped after the timeout, freshman Lyntia Gwess sparked a rally and the Highlanders cut the deficit to one point. Each team traded points over the next couple rallies and the score was tied at 22 apiece late in the set. With the Aggies sitting comfortably at match point, the Highlanders rallied back to tie the game at 24 and evade match point. However, despite their efforts, the Aggies secured the win with a two straight points to win 26-24.
 
The Highlanders started out hot in the second set, driving the Aggies to take an early timeout. The score was set at 10-6 after the timeout, and two more points were awarded to Cairn before the Aggies would strike again. Delaware Valley battled back by scoring on 6 consecutive serves to bring the set much closer.
Later in the set, an intense rally where the possession switched 9 times was brought to an end with a surprise kill from setter Liz White to level the score at 13. White's kill and back-to-back service aces from Brooke Seidel fueled a rally of 7 unanswered points giving Cairn the advantage late in the set 20-19. Three kills from junior Haley Sheehan and the Highlanders leveled the match at 1-1 with their 26-24 victory in the second set.
 
The third set begun evenly with a score of 8 all, until an ace from Micaiah Randolph ignited a 4 point streak that caused the Aggies to pause for a timeout. When both teams reset on the court, Cairn put together 2 more points to push the streak to 6 and set the score at 14-8. Sophomore Brie Norton ended the set with three kills as Cairn coasted to a 25-18 victory in the third set.
 
Gwess and Sheehan led the charge in set four with multiple kills from both early in the set. White, Seidel, and Norton all added to the attack with several kills throughout the set. The fourth set was a fight until the very end as Cairn sought their third victory of the year. The score deficit was never larger than three points on either side as both squads battled for the lead. The Aggies would eventually pull out a narrow victory in the penultimate set, defeating the Highlanders 25-23 and forcing a deciding 5^th set.
 
The final set started with a 4 point Aggie run, but was countered by a 3 point Highlander run of their own. At the midpoint both teams scraped out a couple points, with neither team able to throw the decisive blow. The score was 9-8 in the Aggies favor when the Highlanders went on a 7 point streak to clinch the victory of the set, the match, and a sigh of relief as their losing streak was broken.
 
The Highlanders were led by Haley Sheehan with 15 kills, while Brie Norton and Lyntia Gwess tallied 9 each. Liz White racked up 30 assists and was a spark plug for the Highlanders offensive efforts.
 
With the Highlanders finally playing at full strength once more, Cairn has nothing but optimism over the rest of the season and will hit the road to face off against Rosemont College this Saturday at 1:00 pm in conference play.