PENSACOLA, Fla. - For the second time over the last eight days, the University of West Florida volleyball team has beaten Lee University in five-set heartbreakers. Saturday's defeat in the semifinal round of the GSC tournament hurt much worse. It was the 26th win of the year for the top-seeded Argonauts against only five defeats while the Lady Flames' season ends at 17-14.
The final 3-2 (25-17, 17-25, 23-25, 25-21, 21-19) represents the type of battle staged by the two clubs, especially the Lady Flames. The fifth set was tied eight times before West Florida finally claimed the victory. Lee trailed 9-12 in the set but battled back to take a 13-12 lead. From that point on, there were seven more ties before the outcome was finally decided.
The Argonauts claimed the first set, and Lee went up 2-1 by winning the next two sets, but West Florida tied it up at two and then forced the deciding fifth set. The fifth was tied 19-19 before the Argos tallied back-to-back points and claimed the hard-fought win.
Lee had four players in double-figure kills. Payton Danley had 15, Jordyn Butler 14, Sara Palumbo 13 and Sophia Lippert 11. Sydney Sharpe set up her teammates with 29 assists and Berra Soyler had 25.
All totaled, the Lady Flames had 14 blocking assists and two solo blocks. Naomi Hockless had one solo and four blocking assists. Butler had four blocking assists. Danley had one solo and two blocking assists while Esthefany Rabit finished the day with seven kills and three blocking assists. On a negative side, it was not a good serving day for Lee. They had four aces but 10 service errors.
It was a busy digging afternoon for the Lady Flames. Four players ended with double-digit digs. Izzy Denton led the way with 28. Palumbo was next with 25 while Mikayla Buhr dug up 13 and Sharpe 10 for a final team total of 94 digs.
West Florida was led in the kill department by Emily Breazeale with 16. Kumara Flanagain followed with 14 and Magdalena Vongkasemsiri had 13 kills and six blocking assists. All totaled, the Argonauts were credited with two solo blocks and 22 blocking assists. Gabi Moulton had 46 key assists while five different West Florida players were in crooked numbers when it came to digs, led by Madalyn Mire with 28.
