CLEVELAND, Tenn. - In a volleyball contest that saw two Gulf South Conference teams go into Tuesday evening's battle with unbeaten 2-0 conference records, it came as no surprise when the two evenly matched squads fought for five sets before the University of Montevallo handed host Lee a 3-2 (25-19, 22-25, 25-19, 17-25, 15-12) defeat. The Falcons improved to 9-3 overall while the Lady Flames dropped to 6-4.
Lee will continue a busy week of GSC action when it hosts Christian Brothers University on Friday at 6 p.m. and then will entertain Union University at 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
The Falcons jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first set behind the serving of Blakeley Robbins. She delivered three straight aces to start the set and finished with four before her team won the 25-19 decision. Mae Mae Beatty had
three aces as Montevallo stunned the Lady Flames with seven services that could not be returned in the set.
Lee rallied back and claimed a close second set 25-22 behind the solid play of Jordyn Butler, Payton Danley and Olivia Reevey. Butler had seven kills and a .385 attack mark, plus three blocking assists in the set. Danley delivered six kills while Reevey had five slams and an impressive .500 attack percentage. Berra Soyler dished off 14 assists and Sydney Sharpe delivered 10. Avery Sample went to the deck for 15 digs.
The Falcons went up 2-1 by winning the third set 25-19. The Lady Flames rallied quickly, jumping out to a big 16-6 lead by scoring 10 straight points and won the fourth set 25-17 to force the fifth short set.
In the final set, Ellie Scharlow delivered a pair of aces and put the Falcons up 4-2. Lee rallied back and finally took the lead at 10-9 and led by a 12-10 score before Montevallo tied the game at 12 and then scored the final three
points to walk away with the 15-12 decision and the 3-2 victory.
The Lady Flames were solid in the hitting department with four in double-figure kills. Danley led the way with 14. Butler followed with 13 and a .400 attack percentage. Esthefany Rabit put down 11 kills and joined Butler with three blocking assists. Reevey totaled 10 kills and a team-high .529 attack mark. She also had one block and five blocking assists.
Soyler led the way with 27 assists and Sharpe followed with 22. Sharpe delivered her first double-double of the season by adding 11 digs. Sample was the dig leader with 32. The Lady Flames had 83 digs for the game, and the Falcons had only 63.
Katie Wilkerson delivered a powerful swing for the Falcons. She finished with 21 kills and a .327 attack percentage. Eliza Tyrrell added 21 kills. Robbins was the Montevallo assist leader with 31, and Lily Erdal dished off 21. The Falcons had 16 service aces for the match, and Ava Wind was the dig leader with 23.
Coach Christa Fabre's Thoughts:
"So much of volleyball is the serve/serve receive battle and we lost that one tonight. Made it tough to get into a rhythm. Our hitters were doing such a great job. We were hitting at a much higher hitting percentage. But you can't win if first contact isn't good and that was the name of the game tonight."
