Columbia, SC - The Johnson & Wales Charlotte women's volleyball team broke a six match skid on Thursday night as they rallied for a 5 set win over Allen University.

The Wildcats got off to a promising start in the first set, leading 4-1 on the strength of an Emily Arends kill and Logan Smith ace. Allen quickly turned the set around, using their height advantage to reel off 12 of the next 14 points to take a commanding 13-6 lead in the set. JWU got as close as three points at 20-17, but the Yellow Jackets got two service aces from Jyla Clayton as part of a 5-0 run to close out the set.

The second set was close throughout, and entered the final points tied at 19. Allen scored three in a row, before the Wildcats answered with two of their own to trim the margin to one on a kill by Smith, but attack errors by the Wildcats on the final two points sealed the set in Allen's favor.

JWU led 13-10 in the early portion of the third, as they got three kills each from Arends and Ahmarie Young. The Yellow Jackets then ran off 5 straight points to take a two point lead at 15-13. A Young service ace gave JWU a 21-19 lead, one they would not relinquish, as they went on to win the third 25-23.

The fourth set saw Allen lead 7-4 early, and then 15-14 before the Wildcats ran off five straight points, helped by two Young service aces, to go up 19-15. The Yellow Jackets could get no closer than two points the rest of the way, as JWU scored the final four points of the set to win 25-18.

Allen scored the first two points of the deciding set, but JWU took full control from that point, highlighted by an 8-0 run that took JWU from down 3-1 to up 9-3, and effectively ended the match. Shayla Pope provided the exclamation points with kills on three of the final four Wildcat points, as JWU took the fifth 15-6.

Ahmarie Young led the way for JWU with 17 kills, 19 digs, and 4 service aces, as she hit .452 in the match. Pope was nearly as good. She tied her career high with 12 kills while hitting .476. Logan Smith handed out 40 assists, and tallied 8 digs. Emily Arends had 12 kills, 3 service aces, and 4 digs, while Mikayla Seymour-Tucker added 13 digs.

JWU improves to 11-16, while Allen falls to 10-10.

The Wildcats return home to face USC-Union on Tuesday, October 18th at 7pm.