The Lee volleyball team fell to Division III power Emory in four sets (25-20, 25-17, 15-25, 25-21) on Wednesday evening from Walker Arena.
 
The Eagles came into the match ranked No. 13 in the AVCA Division III Coaches' Poll.
 
"We knew we were going to be facing a really tough team. That's why we love to have Emory on our schedule," said head coach Andrea Hudson.
 
Silvia Sartori recorded her second straight double-double with 14 kills and an equal number of digs. Alex Reuter was at her heels with 13. MaKayla Beebe was credited with 25 digs while Hanna Matthews recorded 42 of the 47 assists for Lee.
 
Emory used a 14-5 run to pull away in the first set 19-12. Lee's comeback came up short cutting it to just four points at 20-24 before Leah Saunders put away the set for the Eagles.
 
"We saw early on that we made a few of the mistakes that we had been making when we've come up against a team that challenges us like this," noted Hudson.
 
Emory jumped out to an early start getting the first four points of the second set and jumped out to a 9-3 lead and never looked back ending the set on assisted block from Sydney Leimbach and Mady Arles for a 25-17 win.
 
Coach Hudson and her squad then made some adjustments and took the third set in a commanding victory 25-15. The Lady Flames had 12 kills and only three errors and hit for .300 in the set. Lee led by as many as 11 before they put it away on a 4-0 run thanks to an Emory error, Beebe ace, and back to back Reuter kills to avoid the sweep.
 
Lee's comeback would come up short however as the Eagles used a timely 4-0 run to take a 22-17 lead before taking the match in the fourth set 25-21.
 
"We found some things to work on and areas we need to get better but overall we saw some encouraging things out of our team tonight, even though the scoreboard didn't show that," said Hudson.
 
Emory had a balanced scoring attack with four players registering double digit kills. Saunders led the Eagles with 12 kills. Elyse Thompson dug 22 attacks while Arles recorded 42 assists.
 
"I think the intensity level they made us bring to the court tonight was very important because we know that the next two matches we have to do that. We have to jump right back into conference play. We go to West Florida and we love the opportunity to go and play there. We know it's a tough place for us to play. I think once we get on the court that they will remember some of the things we talked about tonight," concluded Hudson.
 
The Lady Flames will jump back into conference play traveling to Pensacola, Fla. to take on 13^th ranked West Florida on Friday with a 6 p.m. start time. Coach Hudson and her squad will then travel Auburn Montgomery for a Saturday afternoon match with a 2 p.m. scheduled first serve.