Aiken, S.C. – The Lee University volleyball team ended the weekend with a 3-2 loss to USC-Aiken on Saturday morning. In another battle, Lee had the lead late in the fourth set but let it slip away. Then USCA handily took the final set 15-8 to go to 6-0 on the season. Meanwhile, Lee fell to 3-3 on the year. Lee will have a week off before their home opener on September 15 against Lincoln Memorial University.
USCA controlled the first set hitting .355% while the Flames only managed to hit .135%. Lee never led in the set but kept it close. After Lee brought it back to 16-15, USCA went on a run and won the first set 25-19.
USCA came out strong in the second set once again and led it 14-10. Then Mikayla Buhr came up to serve and led Lee on a 15-1 run to win the set. She had four service aces in the stretch to lead Lee to the win.
In the third set Lee really started to hit the ball well. They had 16 kills and hit .353% for the set. The Flames ran away and won the set 25-17.
Lee continued to hit well in the fourth and had 19 kills. In the fourth, they could never pull away from the Pacers. Lee had the 24-22 lead and USCA battled back to win it 31-29.
The fifth set was all USCA. It was 5-0 run to start for USCA and then never looked back until they won 15-8.
In the loss, Lee had more points, kills, blocks, assists, and digs but could not find the win. Payton Danley had 17 kills while Gunny Brock had 11. Jordyn Butler also had 10 kills.
Esthefany Rabit had nine blocks while Sydney Sharpe had 23 assists and Avery Sample had 23 digs.
Coach Christa Fabre's Thoughts:
"We had control of the match moving into the fourth set and we let it slip late with unforced errors. We had two five set opportunities this weekend and lost both. We have some young players who haven't been in those moments before but we also have several seasoned players and we should be able to handle ourselves better when the game is tight."
