SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Hitting the floor at the G.B. Hodge Center for the team's much-anticipated home opener, USC Upstate volleyball engaged in a tight, back-and-forth affair Wednesday evening in front of a sizeable crowd against Queens. The Spartans battled, pushing a pair of sets to extra points in the tightly contested match, ultimately succumbing in four sets to the Royals.
 
Game Information
Score: Queens 3; USC Upstate 1 (19-25; 26-24; 34-32; 25-18)
Records: USC Upstate (2-2; 0-0 Big South); Queens (3-1; 0-0 ASUN)
Location: G.B. Hodge Center | Spartanburg, S.C.
 
How It Happened
Proving why they earned Big South Conference weekly honors Tuesday afternoon, Upstate's three honorees produced season-best outings across the stat sheet against the Royals. Reigning Player of the Week, senior middle blocker Ady O'Grady, and Freshman of the Week, outside hitter Summer Kohler, offered career-best kills totals while Setter of the Week, sophomore Kamyla Vega David, passed out a season-high assist mark.
 
Heading the Spartan attack, O'Grady collected a career-best 20 terminations—the first Upstate player with 20 or more kills in a match since Ali Jansen (23) on Nov. 2, 2024—doing so behind a match-high .514 hitting efficiency. Just behind, Kohler registered 19 kills and freshman middle blocker Kensley Haneline nine kills, both career-highs. Vega David passed out 54 assists, surpassing the 50-apple mark for the second time in her career, one shy of her career-high.
 
Complementing her 54 assists, Vega David recorded her second double-double of the season, plucking up a season-high 16 balls. Completing a trio of Spartans with double-figure digs, freshman libero Sophia Overholt picked up a career and team-high 18 balls, and sophomore defensive specialist Hannah Campbell dug up 10 balls.
 
Notable

• Posting 20 kills versus the Royals, Ady O'Grady became the first Spartans since Ali Jansen against UNC Asheville on Nov. 2, 2024, to hit the 20-kill threshold in a match.
• Recording her career-high 20 behind a .514 hitting percentage, O'Grady has posted a hitting efficiency greater than .440 in each of the Spartans' four matches this season.
• Passing out a season-high 54 assists against Queens, Kamyla Vega David's total ties for the ninth-most assists in a single match in the program's Division I era (2007-pres.). Coming in four sets, her total ties for the fourth-most in a four-set match in the program's D1 era.

 
Up Next for the Spartans
Coming off the team's first home action, USC Upstate returns to the road for the team's final "preseason" tournament. The Spartans head to UAB for the Blazer Invitational, facing the host Blazers, North Alabama, and Tennessee Tech.
 
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