ROME, Ga. – The Shorter Lady Hawks continued their impressive start to the 2021 season on Friday night knocking off the Lee volleyball team, 3-1 from the Winthrop-King Centre.

The Lady Flames staggered to a 25-14 defeat in the first set as the Lady Hawks closed on a 12-3 run. Lee would even up the series in set two, 25-22. Shorter would return the favor 25-22 in the third set and outlast the Lady Flames 25-21 to close out the match in the fourth.

Emma Flowers collected her seventh double-digit kill match of the season with a game-high 16. Allie Whittinghill followed with 13 and Macy Petty hammered home nine from her middle blocker position on a sizzling .667 hitting percentage. Petty had 12 total attacks and committed just one error. Reagan Bratton posted 31 assists and Lyssi Snouffer had 15 digs.

"I thought Macy improved tremendously on her offensive side of the game tonight with a .667 hitting percentage," said Lee head coach Callie Murphy. "I'm proud of how she put her practice into play tonight."

Lacee Glover and Annie Veldhuis led a balanced scoring attack for the home team with 11 kills each. Terrell Carrington fired home nine slams and was a brick wall at the net with seven blocks. Taryn Cycholl set up the offense with 21 assists.

"There are no excuses for tonight other than Shorter executed their portion of the game well and we struggled on most fronts today," added Murphy. "Not our night and we have to get back to work tomorrow against a solid UAH squad. Time to reset and move on towards our next conference match."

The Lady Flames fall to 4-7 on the year and 2-1 in the GSC. The win propels the red hot Lady Hawks to 10-3 overall and 3-0 in the league play.

Lee will face another stiff test on Saturday afternoon as it travels to Alabama Huntsville. First serve is set for 3 p.m.