CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Led by Payton Danley's season-high performance of 25 kills and an attack percentage of .579, the Lee University volleyball team defeated the University of West Alabama 3-1 (22-25, 25-17, 25-21, 25-16) inside Walker Arena on a Volley For A Cure Friday evening. The Lady Flames also honored Julia Davis on Senior Night in their final home game of the season. She is the only senior on the 2024 squad.
Lee got off to a slow start before regrouping and posting the second-set victory. The Tigers battled back in the third set but the Lady Flames were able to secure the win and then coast to the final set victory. Coach Christa Fabre's team improved to an important 10-6 record in GSC play and 16-12 overall. West Alabama dropped to 0-15, 1-23.
While the freshman Danley was having a career night, Grace Mazzocca got going in the second set and finished with seven kills in 13 attempts for a .385 attack mark. Brynna Sands also had seven kills and Naomi Hockless tallied five. As a team, Lee had 54 kills to 39 for the Tigers. Peyton Quesnel was the only West Alabama player in double-figure kills with 10.
The Lady Flames got excellent sets from Berra Soyler who dished off 46 of Lee's 53 assists. The Lady Flames had 70 digs to only 39 for the visitors. Four Lee players finished in double-figure digs. Izzy Denton came up with 18. Davis had 14 to go along with her nine kills. Reagan Foles added 12 and Mikayla Buhr totaled 10 digs.
The Lady Flames will hit the road for their final four games of the regular season. They will visit Trevecca Nazarene on Thursday, Auburn at Montgomery on Saturday, then visit West Florida on Nov. 15 and close out the schedule at Valdosta State on Nov. 16.
Coach Christa Fabre's Thoughts:
"We just had a pretty cool time in the locker room where everybody just went around and said how Julia's impacted them personally and she's just one of those people that does that. She is all in wherever she's at, so she brings competition to our court in a really unique way. She loves being out there, loves playing the game, loves her teammates really well. And you could see that just in all the things that they said. But she's been on such a journey from the time that she got here until now and seen so much growth in her and she's worked through a lot of hard things to. It's just been a beautiful story and a privilege to coach her.
I love Volley for the Cure. Just the energy around it and and being able to to honor someone who's been through something hard. And we got to do that with Haley Cuffman tonight. And so and her family, they've just been through a lot in the last year. And with Haley's mom passing pretty recently, it's just good to be able to support her and and come around that family.
UWA just didn't have an answer for Danley. She was just hitting over and around and being very smart, very disciplined, and just having fun out there too. Wedid a good job of giving her the ball. We talked about feeding the hot hitter and she was our hot hitter for sure."
