Box Score CLEVELAND, Tenn. - It took four hard-fought sets, but the University of Alabama in Huntsville won its eighth straight match by defeating the Lee University volleyball team 3-1 inside Walker Arena on Saturday afternoon (25-22, 23-25, 27-25, 25-18). The loss dropped the Lady Flames to 8-6 in the GSC and 12-11 overall while the surging Chargers improved to 10-3, 18-4.
In the second set win, Lee staged a comeback to post the victory and almost turned the table again in the third set. The Chargers and Lady Flames were forced to use both of their timeouts in the two thrilling sets. UAH jumped on top in the fourth set but Lee refused to quit and forced the Chargers to use a timeout before they were able to pull out the deciding set and the win.
The Lady Flames got strong net play from Payton Danley, Sara Palumbo and Jordyn Butler. Danley had 13 kills and a .360 attack mark. Palumbo was right behind with 12 slams and an even better .444 kill percentage. Butler came on in a reserve role and tallied 10 kills and finished with a .364 kill mark.
Sydney Sharpe dished off 19 assists and Berra Soyler had 17. Lee had only four aces in the match, but Esthefany Rabit got three of the service aces and two were posted for the winning points in the second set. Izzy Denton was the leader in the dig department with 15. Rabit led Lee's solid blocking with eight. Danley contributed four and five other Lady Flames contributed to the 20 total blocks. UAH, led by Mary Grace Bundrant (4), was held to 16 blocks in a rugged afternoon of net play.
The Chargers got outstanding play from Carlee Lowry. She had 17 kills and a .483 attack percentage. The outside hitter also had three service aces and 12 digs. Three other UAH players had double-digit kills, Kayla Ward (12) and Caroline Moyer and Zoe Smith (11 each). Anna Clare Hutto delivered 28 assists while Sydney Durban served up four aces as UAH finished with a total of 14 aces for the match.
The contest, which lasted almost three hours, featured 27 ties and 10 lead changes. UAH had 60 total blocks to Lee's 50. They also dished off 48 assists to Lee's 42 and had 14 aces to just four for the Lady Flames. The Chargers went to the deck for 63 digs and Lee came up with 45, but the Lady Flames had a 20-16 upper hand in the blocking assists department.
The Lady Flames will hit the road for games at the University of West Alabama and Mississippi College next Friday and Saturday before returning to Walker Arena to close out the regular season with four straight home matches.
Coach Christa Fabre's Thoughts:
"There are several takeaways from our match today against UAH. One, our team never counted themselves out of the win. Two, we allowed the disappointment of not closing out the way we pursued the fourth. Three, we have what it takes to compete against and beat the best in our conference and I believe we will be playing our best volleyball at the end of this season when we need to. I'm disappointed in the way the match played out and I know our team is too, so we will continue to work and get better, knowing that nothing about our end goal has changed."
