The Lee volleyball team jumped out to a 2-1 lead by a resilient Montevallo club battled back to hand the Lady Flames a 3-2 loss on Saturday afternoon inside Walker Arena.
The Lady Flames held a commanding, 7-3 lead in the fifth set before the Falcons called a timeout and then caught fire with an 7-1 run to jump ahead, 10-8. The visitors would put the match away with two straight kills by Danielle Lee, who finished with 12, to win, 15-11.
Lee opened up things up, much like they did in Friday's 3-1 loss to Alabama Huntsville, with an impressive first set performance. The Lady Flames won, 25-20 as freshman Abby Stroh came out of the gate with a powerful serve and five of her 14 kills.Â
Montevallo answered with a narrow 25-23 win in set two to even things up. The Lady Flames went up 2-1 after taking set three, 25-19 before the Falcons put together a dominating set four, winning 25-14.
"In the fourth set it all came down to our serve-receive. They served the ball strategically and they were catching us moving backward and we just couldn't get a side-out there. They had a servers get on fire. And in the fifth set we struggled with the serve again and couldn't make the adjustments," said Lee head coach Andrea Hudson.
Bailey Kress led the Lady Flames with 15 kills and had six digs. Stroh added 15 digs and a pair of blocks to her 14 kills while hitting .256. Hanna Matthews had 49 assists and three kills and Rachel Junen and Quinne Daoust stepped in with eight slams each.
"Abby did a nice job of bouncing back today after a tough match last night. She played well and served well today. Bailey moved back outside and is performing like a true senior leader. We are young at some points so we just need to keep trudging along because I do feel like as the season goes on we are going to get better and better," added Hudson.
The Falcons were led by Desiree Rodriquez who tallied a match-high 21 kills and had 16 digs. Brioni Dixon added 14 while Evelina Teran and Lee posted 12 apiece. As a team Montevallo hit at a .208 clip. Savannah Roys delivered 55 assists and tallied 14 digs.
The loss drops the Lady Flames to 6-9 on the year and 0-4 in the GSC. Montevallo improves to 9-7 overall and 3-1 in league contests.
Lee will look to snap a four-match slide as it steps out of conference play for a matchup with Trevecca on Tuesday in Walker Arena. First serve is slated for 7 p.m.
