PENSACOLA, Fla. – Playing in its first Gulf South Conference semifinal match the Lee volleyball team jumped out to an early 1-0 lead before North Alabama rolled off three straight victories to claim a 3-1 win on Saturday afternoon.
The Lady Flames move to 20-10 on the year and will await the NCAA Division II Selection Show on Monday night to see if their season will continue. The Lions improve to 27-6 on the season and will face West Florida in tomorrow's GSC Championship.
MaKayla Beebe had a match-high 28 digs and tallied 58 in her two tournament matches to earn GSC All-Tournament honors. The all-conference junior finishes the year with 568 digs.
"Makayla is such a dynamic player and she is always flying across the floor getting at balls that most people can't even see. She had a tremendous tournament and was certainly worthy of making the all-tournament team. She is just a great defensive player," said head coach Andrea Hudson.
Silvia Sartori led the attack with 12 kills while Bailey Kress followed with 11. Alex Reuter added six blocks and five kills. Kristi Farley set things up with 17 assists and Sadie Johnson chipped in 11.
The Lady Flames opened with a 25-22 first set victory thanks to seven kills from Kress and 10 digs from Beebe. The Lions wouldn't stay down long however as they roared out to a 25-15 win in set two.
The all-important third set was a back and forth affair. Lee trailed 21-16 before ripping off four straight points to force a Lions timeout. The Lady Flames would battle all the way back to tie things up at 23 before Lexie Bradley delivered a kill and an ace to close out the set.
The Lions punched their ticket to a third straight GSC Championship with a 25-13 win in the fourth and final set.
Bradley led the Lions with 22 slams and two aces. Jayden Davila McClary set up the offense with 47 assists to go along with 21 digs while Ashtyn Kapovich added 23 digs and eight assists.
"Obviously UNA is a very strong team and only had two loses in conference so we knew we were coming up against a really strong team with a couple of outstanding weapons that we were going to have to contain. I thought we did a nice job early but eventually they took control of the match but I was very proud of how the girls kept on plugging away and never gave up," concluded Hudson.
