In one of the most thrilling matches you'll ever see the Lee volleyball team bounced off the mat and overcame a 5-0 deficit in the fifth set to defeat Montevallo (15-13) 3-2 in the home finale from Walker Arena Saturday night.
The Lady Flames called a timeout after falling behind in the tiebreaker and from there put together a 15-8 run to close out the Falcons. Alex Reuter delivered the decisive blow with a kill set up by Sadie Johnson.
"We talked in the timeout about just settling down and getting the side out because then we would be where we wanted to be in the rotation," said head coach Andrea Hudson. "It was a bit of a chess match between us and Montevallo as far as trying to find the best matchups and we found a good combination there after the timeout and were able to go on a great run to finish it off."
Silvia Sartori posted a career-high 27 kills in the contest and added 16 digs. Southpaws Bailey Kress and Quinne Daoust followed with nine and eight slams respectively.
Junior libero MaKayla Beebe flew around the court and made several acrobatic saves to turn away attacks by the Falcons. Beebe finished the contest with 34 digs.
"I thought Makayla played so well and made some phenomenal plays out there tonight. She's very coachable and I was really proud of her effort," said Hudson.
Senior Brooke Wilsman posted six kills and 23 digs while fellow seniors Sadie Johnson and Kristi Farley combined for 53 kills. Johnson delivered 28 and Farley chipped 25 and added two aces.
"I just love this team so much and I'm going to miss them. They are the hardest workers out there and have made me love volleyball even more this year," said Wilsman as she reflected on her final home match. "It will be a great memory to look back on and know we were able to finish well at home."
Montevallo featured a balanced scoring attack with four players finishing with double-digit kills. Brie Blume paced the Alabama club with 12 while Kristy Bohan and Brioni Dixon followed with 11 each. Evelina Teran tallied 10 and Harley Masoner set things in motion with 24 assists.
"Losing tonight would have put us in a really bad spot going into the final week and trying to make the conference tournament with so many teams hovering around the sixth spot," added Hudson. "We needed this win in a big way and we are hoping it helps us make the tournament."
The Lady Flames improve to 18-8 overall and are 9-5 in the GSC to currently occupy the sixth and final playoff spot. The loss puts Montevallo on the outside looking in for the sixth and final spot as it falls to 13-14 and 7-8 in league play.
Lee will wrap up the regular season with a road trip to Valdosta State on Friday and a visit to No. 20 West Florida on Saturday. The GSC Tournament is Nov. 17-19 and will be hosted by the Argonauts, who wrapped up the No. 1 seed today with a 3-0 win against Auburn Montgomery and are currently 14-0 in conference play.Â
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