DANVILLE, Va. — With the Grant Center rocking thanks to an electric atmosphere, Averett University volleyball rallied back from a first-set loss to beat Meredith College 3-1 on Wednesday night. With the victory, the Cougars took sole position of first place atop the USA South Conference's East Division standings.

Averett (11-11, 8-1 USA South) beat Meredith (13-7, 7-2 USA South) by scores of 20-25, 25-18, 25-20 and 25-22 to end the Avenging Angels' seven-match winning streak.

After dropping the opening set, Averett fell behind 10-6 in the second frame. Yet, after a timeout, the Cougars picked up momentum and battled back to go in front 14-13. With the score knotted at 17-17, Averett closed out the set on a dominant note by wining eight of the final nine points.

Set 3 was another battle that saw the two conference rivals stay within two points of each other until midway through when Meredith scored three consecutive times to inch ahead 16-13. Averett fought back to tie it at 17-17. The Cougars again ended the set in a strong way by winning eight of the last 11 points to go up 2-1 in the match.

With the crowd cheering, Averett used that momentum to race out to an 11-5 lead in Set 4. However, Meredith put together a seven-point run to take a 12-11 advantage. The Cougars reclaimed a 16-12 lead on a run of their oen, helped by a service error and three consecutive attack errors by the Avenging Angels. Again, Meredith battled back to tie the set at 17-17 before the two teams traded points. Knotted at 21-21, Averett went ahead on freshman Morgan Barnes' kill. The Cougars then benefited from a pair of Meredith attack errors to go ahead 24-21. Although Meredith staved off Averett for one point, freshman Lauren Montren put down a kill in the middle of the court off a pass from junior McKenzie Miller for the final point to seal the big conference win for the Cougars.

Montren finished with a team-high 12 kills as part of a double-double that included 14 digs, while sophomores Sarah Shropshire and Zamyiah Mangum each had 11 kills. Mangum also had a double-double after totaling 22 digs. Junior Myka Patterson led Averett with 24 digs and freshman Meg Hopkins chipped in 11 digs. Miller nearly collected a triple-double, tallying 37 assists, 16 digs and seven kills. Barnes added eight kills and three blocks. Senior Madison Dadez and Shropshire also finished with three total blocks.

Averett travels to Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on Saturday for a conference tri-match against N.C .Wesleyan College and Methodist University to start a stretch of four consecutive road matches.