POPLARVILLE, Miss. — The Pearl River volleyball Wildcats turned in one of their most dominating performances in program history Saturday, sweeping Bevill State 3-0 (25-10, 25-20, 25-5) inside Shivers Gymnasium.

The sweep is Pearl River’s second on the young season.

“We had a couple of specific goals on the board to reach today and they made sure to stay focused on them the entire match,” Pearl River coach Haley Chatham said.
“That makes a huge difference. We were able to use almost all our of our personnel and were able to put players in new positions in an attempt to keeping raising our volleyball IQ.”

Pearl River held Bevill State to a mere 35 total points — a program best. Bevill’s five points in the third set was just three points shy of a program best, only topped by PRCC holding Judson College to two points in a set last season.

The Wildcats (3-1 overall) came out as the aggressor, jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the first set. Following a kill from freshman Avery Beth Durdin (Olive Branch; Lewisburg), PRCC went on a 5-2 run that was punctuated by a Leah Draine (Mobile, Ala.; Mattie T. Blount) block to give PRCC a 10-3 lead and force the Bears (0-5) into calling a timeout.

The break didn’t turn out as BSCC had hoped as the Wildcats reeled off five straight for a 15-3 advantage.

PRCC didn’t let up down the stretch, cruising to a 25-10 victory in Set 1.

Bevill State showed fight in the second set. With PRCC substituting more than they did in the opener, the Bears actually held an early 7-5 lead and later extended their advantage to 9-6. PRCC buckled down, however, and tied the game 11-11. The two teams traded points out of the Bears timeout, and Bevill State actually tied the game back up 17-17 and 18-18, but the Wildcats proved to be too much. Pearl River won 7 of the final nine points to put the set away 25-20.

Pearl River returned to its dominant ways in the final set. After being tied 2-2, and jumping ahead 4-3, PRCC claimed 13 straight points for a commanding 17-3. The rout was officially on at that point as PRCC earned 8 of the final 10 points to improve to 3-1 on the year.

“Every player contributed today,” Chatham said. “They kept playing as a team as their most important goal and were sure to give each other incredible support, nonstop. They started fast and finished fast. Reaching all of those goal showed up on the scoreboard.”

Pearl River now holds a 4-0 overall record against the Bears.

UP NEXT
The Wildcats return to the court Monday for a doubleheader at William Carey. The matches in Hattiesburg begin at 3 p.m.

PRCC returns to Shivers Gymnasium on Thursday to host Northwest at 1 p.m.

Due to COVID-19 protocols, home matches are not open to the public. 

HOW TO TUNE IN
Most home events will be broadcast at PRCCMedia.com/Gold but in some instances where multiple teams are at home, PRCC will also have a feed on its auxiliary channel at PRCCMedia.com/Maroon. Fans who have Roku or Amazon Fire devices can also watch the Wildcats on their televisions by downloading the “Pearl River CC” channel from their app store.