MONTGOMERY, Ala. – It took four sets against a battling Auburn University at Montgomery team on Friday afternoon, but the Lee University volleyball team walked away with its fourth straight Gulf South Conference victory and improved to 5-3 in the GSC and 9-8 overall. The improving host Warhawks fell to 1-6, 2-13.
The Lady Flames dropped the first set 23-25 and then bounced back to win 25-22, 25-22, 25-17. Lee will return home and will entertain rival Union University on Tuesday (5 p.m.) inside Walker Arena.
It was certainly a team effort in the victory over the Warhawks. Freshman Jasmine Terry led the kill department with 11 and a .308 attack mark. Naomi Hockless followed with eight kills and .375 attacks.
Payton Danley returned to action and had seven slams and the highest hitting percentage (.417). Esthefany Rabit also had seven kills, four clean blocks and went to the deck for nine digs. Sophia Lippert joined in with six kills. Brynna Sands, who is also returning to action, finished with five kills.
Freshman Sydney Sharpe dished off 20 assists and Madison Dahl contributed 10. Mikayla Buhr served up three aces and Sara Palumbo had two. Izzy Denton was the dig leader with 19.
For the Warhawks, Kendall McCain set the pace with 10 kills and four aces. Anyaliz Rodriquez also followed with 10 kills. Courtney Joseph added three aces to the 11 total for AUM. Addi Vinson had 15 assists and Kiara Vega was the dig leader with 10.
The Lady Flames led in every department but aces. They had 48 kills to 39 for the Warhawks. They dished off 40 assists to 29 for the home team and had nine total blocks to seven for AUM. In the dig department, Lee came up with 71 key digs while the Warhawks were able to dig up only 59.
Coach Christa Fabre's thoughts:
"We let the first set slip after being ahead, but had a solid three sets in a row after that. We had a few players out for different reasons and it was great to see different players step up and fill in the gaps."
