SALEM, West Virginia -  With a unseasonably warm weekend for late October, the Valley of Learning has been busy with home contests for the Tigers this week. The final of those matchups came this afternoon when Salem's volleyball team played host to the Charleston Golden Eagles. The Tigers had their moments, but an experienced Golden Eagles squad was able to pull away with the 3-0 win. 

In the first set, Salem kept things close early on with Valentina Poti and Hailey Haynes playing especially well to open the set. The Golden Eagles put together a pair of surges late in the set, and the Tigers dropped set 1 25-17. 

In the next set, the Tigers had some trouble getting the offense going as they quickly fell behind 7-3. Salem rallied though behind some solid hitting from Noemi Combi and Sydney Kopshina. Despite the improvements, the deficit was simply too big for the Tigers to erase, and Salem fell 25-14 in set 2. 

In the final frame, another sluggish start for the Tigers put Salem in a tight spot. They were able to work their way out of it behind some big kills from Makenna Long and Jocelyn Rios. Unfortunately, the Tigers were never able to totally erase the Golden Eagle lead. Therefore, Charleston pulled away with a 25-15 set win and a 3-0 overall victory. 

On the score sheet, the Tigers were led by Noemi Combi with 6 kills and 2 service aces. Katie Kennedy led the Tigers in assists with 11, and Arianna Parsley logged 9 digs. 

Despite the setback, Salem will have a short break to regroup ahead of their next contest. The Tigers head up to West Liberty to take on the Hilltoppers in their next game on Tuesday, October 26th at 7 PM.