The Lee volleyball team outlasted GSC frontrunner West Florida, 3-2 in a five-set thriller on Saturday afternoon from the Sport Court at Walker Arena.

After four lopsided sets the fifth and deciding set had a little bit of everything. The Lady Flames came out fast and jumped out to a 4-1 advantage. Silvia Sartori made it 5-3 with her match-high 16^th kill of the contest but suffered a leg injury in the process and had to be helped off the court.

Lee rallied together after the injury to their outstanding sophomore and with the score sitting at 14-11 the Lady Flames finished off the Argonauts on a kill by setter Sadie Johnson.

"I don't even know if words can explain how proud I am," said head coach Andrea Hudson with a smile after the match. "I know the girls understand the importance of playing well at the end of the year. We talked about having the belief and confidence to beat a team like West Florida and they showed that. We needed to do a few things better than last night and one of those was blocking and we did that today, especially in the fifth set."

Brooke Wilsman added 10 kills and nine digs. Catherine Conley followed right behind with nine slams and three blocks. Ellisia Kimble pitched in five kills and six blocks. Makayla Beebe lunged around the back of the court to pick up 28 digs. The sophomore also added six assists. Johnson finished with 27 helpers while Kristi Farley had 18 and eight digs.

West Florida was led by Rachel Neblett's 10 kills. Monique StCyr set up the majority of the offense with 36 assists. Tori Martella aided the defensive effort with 24 digs. The Argos fall to 19-8 and 12-3 in the conference after dropping back to back five set matches to Lee and Shorter.

The first four sets did not contain much drama as both clubs posted dominating wins. The Argonauts jumped out to a 25-18 victory in the opener. The Lady Flames rebounded and jumped out to a 12-1 lead in set two en route to a 25-16 win. Set three saw West Florida follow suite with the first eight points to help claim a 25-13 victory. Not to be denied Lee forced the tiebreaking set with a 25-16 triumph in set four.

"Volleyball is all about matchups. I took a risk in the second set and rotated a few people around and it worked. Then they made some adjustments and we bounced back and forth," acknowledged Hudson.  "This was a chess match and we went into the fifth set knowing we wanted Sadie to serve because she has been serving so well and we wanted Cat (Conley) to be on the front line for the longest amount time."

Hudson's club avenged an earlier season loss to the Argonauts and snapped a six match losing streak overall against the perennial GSC power.

The Lady Flames pull even at 12-12 overall and 8-8 in the GSC with four conference matches remaining. A big road match with West Alabama awaits Lee on Tuesday at 6 p.m. as it looks to nail down one of the six spots available in the GSC Tournament.

"West Alabama always has a great crowd in their gym and they are tough to beat on the road so we just need to regroup and knowing that every opponent has their own strengths so we need to get ready for them," concluded Hudson.