SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The West Liberty University volleyball team battled back from a 2-0 deficit here Tuesday night to hand Slippery Rock a 3-2 setback in non-conference action at Morrow Gymnasium.
    The hard-fought win completed a sweep of the season series for Coach Kayla Mull's Hilltoppers (19-8), who had notched a 3-0 sweep of The Rock (9-13) at the ASRC during September's MEC/PSAC Crossover.
    West Liberty's mental toughness was certainly put to the test in Tuesday's marathon as Slippery Rock won the first two sets in convincing fashion, 25-17 and 25-19, before the Black and Gold hit the comeback trail.
    The Hilltoppers stayed alive with a 26-24 win in the third set but there was much more drama to come. West Liberty caught a break in the tightly-played fourth set when Slippery Rock had back-to-back service errors when serving for the match at 25-24 and 26-25. The Rock fought off three straight set points but WLU was finally able to pull out a 31-29 win.
    That sent the match into a winner-take-all fifth set and the Hilltoppers led virtually wire-to-wire in closing things out with a 15-12 victory.
    Olivia Baumhoer had another big night for WLU with a match-high 20 kills and 5 blocks while Raimey Benson weighed in with 14 kills and a pair of blocks. Caitlin Clarke added 9 kills and Renee Lemke checked in with a double-double of 27 assists and 10 digs.
    Mackenzie Sims led all players with a match-high 32 digs while Kendall Souder paced WLU with 28 assists.
    The West Liberty women return to MEC action this weekend, hosting Concord on Friday at 7 p.m. Senior Day is set for Saturday at the ASRC, prior to a 1 p.m. match with UVa-Wise.