WINTER HAVEN, Florida – The Lee volleyball team dropped a couple of hard-fought four set matches on Saturday in the South Region Crossover. In morning action against Saint Leo, the Lady Flames dropped the first two sets, then fought back to capture the third set and pushed the Sunshine Conference club into a pair of timeouts before dropping the fourth set. The final tally read 25-20, 25-16, 20-25, 25-23.
The Lady Flames were led by Emma Flowers who had 22 kills and an attack percentage of .232 and Allie Whittinghill who came on strong in the final two sets and produced 10 kills and an attack mark of .200. Lyssi Snouffer also added seven slams and .222 attack percentage. Reagan Bratton set her teammates up with 42 assists.
The Lady Flames also battled with a season high eight service aces. Flowers came away with three aces while Hannah Longley and Camryn Halpin had two each. Longley also had 15 digs and Halpin 13 digs. Macy Petty had six blocks and Whittinghill five.
Saint Leo had three players with double figures in kills. Brooke Turner came up big with 18, Margaret Schirm followed with 12 and Elizabeth Sandoval added 11. Anna Garrett dished off 48 assists.
"This match was an exciting one to watch with how hard our team pushed to never give up, even when we are down by a significant amount," said Coach Callie Murphy. "I thought this was the first match where I saw our hitting come to life again on both pins among the hitters. We stayed tough until the very last point of the set. Overall, I feel this is what a coach calls a good learning lesson."
Florida Tech 3, Lee 1
Once again the Lady Flames fought to the end before falling to another Sunshine State Conference team, 25-21, 22-25, 25-21, 28-26 in the afternoon session. The highlight had to be the return of Abby Stroh to the Lady Flames lineup. Stroh had been out of action since the opening games of the season with an illness.
She responded with 19 kills and a .300 attack percentage. Emma Flowers had another solid game with 24 kills and a .280 mark. Allie Whittinghill followed with eight kills while Reagan Bratton again set her teammates up with 49 assists. Erica South had eight aces. Camryn Halpin went to the deck for 16 digs and Hannah Longley added 10.
"It was nice to see Abby Stroh back in the lineup again. She brought a lot of fire and energy to the court. Also, Erica South had a great serving night, adding 8 of our 13 aces.
"Overall, the mistakes killed us in this match. We may have had a lot of kills and aces, but overall, the other error categories cost us this match. We now have to move on back to conference matches with West Alabama and Mississippi College next weekend. It's time to regroup and refocus," said Coach Murphy in closing.
