MONTGOMERY, Ala. – In a hard-fought battle that saw the Lee University volleyball team win the second and third sets only to have the host Auburn University at Montgomery team regroup and claim the final two in capturing the 3-2 (25-15, 21-25, 17-25, 25-19, 15-10) victory over the Lady Flames on Saturday evening.

The loss leaves Lee with a 10-8 Gulf South Conference mark and 16-14 overall. The Warhawks, improved to 7-11, 10-17. The road trips do not get any easier for Coach Christa Fabre's team. The club will travel to Pensacola, Fla. next Friday and face league-leading West Florida, then turn right around and move up to Valdosta State for a Saturday afternoon affair.

The Lady Flames were led by Payton Danley who had 16 kills. Naomi Hockless, Grace Mazzocca and Julia Davis had eight kills each. Hockless had the best attack percentage .250, but the team had a total of 48 kills and a .149 hitting mark.

One highlight came in the third set when the Lady Flames were down 11-15 and went on an 8-0 run. Sara Palumbo was serving during seven of those points. Lee went on to win the set 25-17.

The Lady Flames had nine aces with Izzy Denton having four and Palumbo three. However, seven service errors hurt Lee's chances during the entire five sets. Berra Soyler delivered 28 assists while Danley had eight blocks, Mazzocca had seven and Hockless four. Denton also had 22 digs, Davis 13 and Palumbo 12.

The talented Warhawks were led by Greta Corrente with a double-double, 10 kills and 10 digs. Kendall McClain helped the cause with 14 kills and five key service aces. Maya Thompson had 11 kills (.348 kill percentage) and eight blocks. Savannah Sebek and Campbell Gash set up their teammates. Sebek had 24 assists while Gash delivered 19 assists and five service aces.

Coach Christa Fabre's thoughts:
"AUM is a tough team and have some personnel that can be difficult to defend when they are in rhythm. We had a couple of good sets when we played clean volleyball, but did not have the efficiency at the net that we needed overall. There were several rotations we got stuck in and allowed them to go on too many runs. We have a week of practice and another tough road weekend ahead. We have to regroup and finish our regular season strong."