PALM BEACH, Fla. – Coach Christa Fabre and her Lee University volleyball team would like to forget about the first two sets in the Palm Beach Atlantic Tournament and maybe concentrate a little more about set three. The Lady Flames got off to a slow start, dropping the first set 25-15 and the second set 25-18 before regrouping and challenging the strong host Palm Beach Atlantic University team in set three. They forced extra points before falling 26-24 and the final tally of 3-0.
The Lady Flames dropped to 4-3 on the year while the Sailfish improved to 8-1 Coach Fabre will regroup her team from the Friday night affair and get ready for two more tough opponents on Saturday in the tourney. They will face Flagler College at 1 p.m. and then challenge Lynn University, the defending NCAA DII National Champions at 7 p.m.
The Lady Flames had been hitting a solid attack percentage going into Friday's action against the Sailfish. However, they managed only a .060 in the loss and had only 24 kills. Payton Danley had seven kills and a respectable .267 attack mark. Sophia Lippert added five and Jordyn Butler four.
Madison Dahl was the assist leader with eight and Sydney Sharpe dished off six. Lee had only two aces in the loss. Dahl was also the dig leader with nine and Butler added seven. The Lady Flames had six total blocks with Sharpe and Esthefany Rabit putting down two apiece.
Grace Reynolds stole the show for Palm Beach Atlantic. She had 24 assists, four aces and eight digs. Rachel Smith was the attack leader with 10 kills. Freshman Lexi Berry added nine kills and a .350 attack mark while Kaley Board followed with seven kills and an ever better .375 attack. Overall, the Sailfish had a .271 attack percentage. At the net, Harper Stokes had four blocks as the winners controlled the action.
Coach Christa Fabre's thoughts:
"We definitely had a slow start and struggled to calm the chaos. They are a good team and I would have loved to see our team compete the way we played in the third set from start to finish. We are missing a true sense of urgency and focus on the task at hand. We have to find a way to bounce back and work together against two strong teams tomorrow."
