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The Bob Jones University Bruins volleyball team faced off against Carolina University in the Battle of the Bruins on Friday afternoon in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Carolina came away with a 3-0 victory, pushing BJU to a 13-12 record on the year. 

Today's game marked the 19th meeting between the two Bruins programs, with Bob Jones leading the all-time series 14-4 prior to today's contest.

As today's game got underway, Bob Jones got on the board first with an early kill by Lyndsey Cassell followed by back-to-back aces from Paige Altizer. The BJU Bruins continued to maintain a slight advantage over Carolina. Following a kill by Blakely Brown, the Bruins led 17-15 before the CU Bruins went on a five point run to pick up their first lead of the set. With the set point on the line, and the BJU Bruins trailing 23-24, a service error gave the set point to Carolina as the Bob Jones fell 25-23. 

In the second set, the two programs exchanged points early before Carolina pulled ahead 9-5. BJU didn't allow Carolina to get too far ahead as Bob Jones pulled it back within one. After several errors by Bob Jones, Carolina pushed to a 20-14 lead. Carolina continued to go on a 5-1 run to finish the second set on top, 25-16.

Carolina went on a 7-1 run to open the third frame before a kill by Stefanie Burke stopped the spree. The BJU Bruins were unable to stop Carolina as they gained a double digit lead. Bob Jones was unable to catch up and fell in the final set 25-16 in the 3-0 loss. 

Following the game, Coach Anthony Bennett said, "we started very well today and looked very clean on serve receive and did well at putting the ball away early. We weren't able to finish off set one, and we lost a lot of our drive and intentionality. We have quite a few things to clean up going into tomorrow, especially self-inflicted errors. Huge credit to Carolina, they were a well coached and very athletic team, and we enjoyed the high level of competition. We're ready to bounce back and finish our weekend strong as we near the end of the regular season."

Tomorrow, the Bruins travel to Misenheimer, North Carolina, for an afternoon tri-match against Mary Baldwin University and Pfeiffer University.