DANVILLE, Va. — Averett University volleyball, the No. 1 seed in the East Division, avoided a scare from East No. 5 seed Ferrum College with a 3-1 victory in Tuesday's USA South Conference Tournament quarterfinals. The Cougars advanced to Friday's semifinals by beating Ferrum 26-24, 21-25, 25-14, 26-24.

Averett (25-9) will host the semifinals and championship Friday and Saturday. The Cougars will face West Division No. 2 seed Maryville College at 6:30 p.m. Friday following a 4 p.m. matchup between East No. 2 seed Meredith College and West No. 4 seed LaGrange College.

The Cougars had their hands full against Ferrum (16-18), which advanced to the quarterfinals with a 3-1 upset over East No. 4 seed Greensboro College earlier Tuesday evening. Averett had a 22-17 lead in the opening set before Ferrum rattled off five consecutive points to tie it up. The two teams traded the next four points until junior Sarah Smoot's back-to-back kills helped Averett win 26-24.

Although Ferrum lost the first frame, the Panthers used the momentum of that late rally to their advantage in Set 2. Ferrum led most of the way and used a six-point run to pull out to a 19-12 advantage. The Cougars won eight of nine points to get back within 23-21, but the Panthers held on to even up the match.

Averett regained a 2-1 lead in the match thanks to a dominant third set. However, Ferrum didn't go away easily. The Panthers led almost the entire fourth set and seemed poised to push Averett to five games. Down 19-15, Averett battled back to knot the score at 19-19. Yet, Ferrum answered by extending its lead to 23-20.

The Cougars rallied for four points to swing the lead in their favor 24-23. Although Ferrum won the next point to make it 24-24, Averett closed out the match with kills by junior Hannah Shields and freshman Brianna Williams to help the Cougars escape.

"I think we may have been looking ahead and forgot that everyone we play wants to knock us off," Averett volleyball head coach Danny Miller said. "Too many unforced errors. I thought Ferrum played hard, but we made it harder for ourselves than it need to me."

Shields and Williams led Averett's attack with 16 kills and 15 kills, respectively. Smoot finished with 12 kills, while freshman Madison Dadez had six kills. Williams finished with a double-double, adding 10 digs. Sophomore Emily Stanley led the digs category with 19, while sophomore Keenan Marks had 39 assists and 16 digs and junior Christiana Summa had nine digs and four service aces.

Ferrum's night was highlighted by Hannah Helbert's 12 kills and 20 digs. Jordan Joyce had 14 kills and Sarah Hendrix finished with a team-best 24 digs for the Panthers in their final match of the season.