The Lee volleyball team stepped outside of conference play on Tuesday night and outlasted longtime rival Trevecca Nazarene, 3-2 on the sport court in Walker Arena.

The Lady Flames rebounded from a lackluster start to take down the Trojans in the tie breaking set. Lee is now 4-1 on the year in five-set matches.

"We tell our players, 'we love the fifth set', so they come in with a positive mind set and I was proud of how we played in the fifth set tonight," said head coach Andrea Hudson.

The Lady Flames certainly followed the coach's instructions as they used the momentum from a 25-22 fourth set victory to take a commanding 9-3 lead in the fifth and final set.  Trevecca would not go quietly however as battled back to make it 10-7 before a 5-2 Lee run finished things off.

Carley Callahan, Brooke Wilsman and Catherine Conley all recorded 13 kills to pace the offensive effort for the Lady Flames. Ellisia Kimble added six kills and four blocks from her middle blocker position while Kristi Farley led the club with 28 assists.
Makayla Beebe had 23 digs and Wilsman completed a double-double performance with 22 digs of her own.

Trevecca was led by Katelyn Atkinson who fired in 25 kills and added 25 digs. Clare Taylor also managed a double-double with 12 slams and 20 digs while Hanna Matthews set up the offense with 53 assists.

"We had to dig deep and find a way to put shots down against Trevecca because they are very tall and long at every spot on the court," noted Hudson. "They made things difficult on us in the first set but I think as the match went on we did a nice job of adjusting our attacks."

The victory pushes the Lady Flames above .500 at 14-13 on the year while the Trojans fall to 16-12. Coach Hudson's club has certainly enjoyed playing in front of the home crowd as they improve to 8-3 in Walker Arena this season.

Lee will wrap up regular season play with two more Gulf South Conference matches as it looks to qualify for the GSC Tournament beginning next Tuesday. The Lady Flames will travel to Shorter who is currently in a tie for first place at 15-3 before welcoming Mississippi College to town on Friday for the regular season finale at 7 p.m.

"Shorter is going to be ready to go. We beat them here on our home court and they are looking to solidify their spot in the tournament. I'm very happy though we are able to wrap up the regular season on our home court against Mississippi College this year," concluded Hudson.