Golden, Colo - The Lee volleyball team dropped their first two games of the season on Friday in the Oredigger classic. The Lady Flames  fell to Palm Beach Atlantic 3-1 before a comeback fell short in a 3-1 loss to California State East Bay later in the evening. 

Vs. California State East Bay
Silvia Sartori paced Lee with 16 kills as the Lady Flames fell 3-1 (21-25, 25-21, 19-25, 18-25) Friday afternoon to California State University East Bay.
 
The teams traded points until CSUEB went on a three-point run to separate themselves and make the score 7-4 early in the opening set. Lee would start to make a comeback highlighted with kills from Bailey Kress and Alex Reuter to cut the lead back to two and make at 11-13. The Pioneers went on runs late of three and four to stretch the margin with kills from Kathy McKiernan and Kiki Leutner to make it set point 24-19. Lee called a timeout and staved off two match points as Allie Koepfer delivered a kill off a Hannah Matthews pass before picking up pick up an ace. The run ended there however with a service error to end the set, 25-21.
 
Coach Hudson's squad jumped out to an early 6-0 lead in the second set thanks to kills from Reuter, Sartori, and Kress for the first three points. Koepfer would pick up another ace to push the lead 5-0 before Leutner would put the Pioneers on the board to make the score 6-1. CSUEB cut the lead to one at 11-10 but Lee would get back to back points thanks to a kill by Kress and an attack error by McKiernan to push the margin to 13-10 and never looked back. The Lady Flames won the set on a slam by Sartori to take it 25-21.
 
In the third set Lee pounced early and took a 5-2 lead before CSUEB roared back and tied it at 5 each. The teams traded points until the Pioneers went on a three-point run to take a 13-11 lead. They would use a four-point rally to take a 23-18 lead before scoring the final two points off a kill from Lindsey Ray, and a service ace by Natahlee Wilson to win the set 25-19.
 
The fourth set went back and forth early  with the two teams tied at nine before CSUEB pulled away and took a 12-9 lead. A Kill by Deja Thompson would cap off a four-point run to extend the lead to 16-10. The Pioneers would get the last five out of seven points topped off by Leuteneker to win the match and the final set 25-18.
 
Kylee Smith and Matthews would split the assists up with 19 and 18 respectively for Coach Hudson's squad. Koepfer paced the team in digs at 19 while MaKayla Beebe followed closely with 17.
 
Ray led the CSUEB offense with 18 kills. Katie Ireland set the offense up with 49 assists in the match. Wilson recorded 20 digs with Ireland falling in at 17.

Vs. No. 12 Palm Beach Atlantic
The Lee volleyball team fell Friday in their season opener to 12^th ranked Palm Beach Atlantic 3-1 (20-25, 25-18, 19-25, 23-25).
 
Sartori led the offensive charge with 19 kills, and Hanna Matthews had 22 assists. Senior libero MaKayla Beebe had 25 digs, while the team had eight blocks in the comeback effort.
 
The first set was a seesaw affair as the two teams traded the first 24 points to bring it to a 12-12 tie, before PBA went on a small four point run to take the lead and eventually take a 16-13 lead before Lee called their only timeout of the set. The Lady Sailfish then was able to take the set 25-20.
 
Lee fell behind early in the second set 9-6 before storming to make a comeback and tie at nine apiece with a service ace by senior all-conference player Beebe. The Lady Flames then used a five-point run to take the lead 14-11. That is all the cushion Coach Hudson's squad would need as they would go on to win the set 25-18. Silvia Sartori would record four kills in the set, while Beebe would show off her defensive skills with nine digs in the set.
 
PBA then used two sets with 16 kills apiece to take the final two and the match. In the third set, Palm Beach used two runs of five points to separate them and make the lead unreachable as the Lady Flames dropped the third set 19-25.
 
Coach Hudson's squad dropped a close fourth set to end the match. The Lady Sailfish would take a 21-17 lead before Lee started a comeback with a four-point rally thanks to four errors to tie it all at 21. Sartori recorded her sixth kill of the set to give Lee a chance to force a deciding fifth set tying it at 23 all but a costly attack error by Lee would give PBA match point at 24-23, and open the door for a Molly Burkhardt kill that would clinch the game for the Lady Sailfish.

The Lady Flames look to bounce back tomorrow as they take on the host school No. 20 Colorado School of Mines at 12 p.m. before wrapping up the road trip to the Rockies with Davenport at 3 p.m.

Lee returns home next weekend on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 as they host the 2018 Holiday Inn Express classic. They open up their home schedule with  No. 14 Arkansas Tech at 2:30 p.m. on Friday before taking on the University of Arkansas at Monticello that evening at 7 p.m.