Quinne Daoust goes up for one of her 10 kills in Saturday’s match with Shorter
In what always proves to be a high intensity match the Lee volleyball team saw its five-match win streak snapped at the hands of the Shorter Hawks, 3-1 on Saturday afternoon from Walker Arena.
The Hawks outlasted the Lady Flames in the first set, 27-25 as neither team held a lead of more than three points. The decisive point came via an untimely rotation error by Lee.
Shorter pulled away late in the second and won 25-20 to hold the 2-0 advantage on the home team before the Lady Flames gave a raucous Walker Arena crowd something to cheer about with a decisive 25-18 win in the third.
Lee was seemingly in command of the fourth set holding a 17-11 advantage before Shorter rattled off a 7-1 run to tie things up at 18-18. The Hawks would finish the set and the match on a 14-5 run to improve to 10-6 overall and 4-3 in league play.
The loss drops the Lady Flames to 11-4 and 5-2 in the league.
Lee still holds a commanding 22-10 advantage in the all-time series but the Hawks have held the upper hand of late and have now won eight of the last 10.
"We had some service errors and hitting mistakes at bad times which cost us in the fourth set and put us in a tough spot rotation wise," said head coach Andrea Hudson.
Silvia Sartori led the way for the Lady Flames with 13 kills and is second in the GSC in kills per set (3.91). Alex Reuter stepped up in the middle for 12 slams and posted a .308 hitting percentage. Sadie Johnson set the attackers up with 31 assists and added nine digs.
The balanced Lee offensive effort featured 10 kills from Quinne Daoust, nine by Bailey Kress and Brooke Wilsman and eight from Mary Katherine Givhan.
Makayla Beebe flew around the court making some acrobatic digs and finished the contest with 25. Sartori added 12 digs to record her 11th double-double of the season.
"Alex has done a great job for us lately but we need to get a little more balance from our setters to get them the ball more. Our right side hitters have been so good all year that at times we don't get it to the middle as much as we should. It thought both Alex and M.K (Mary Katherine Givhan) had really strong performances," concluded Hudson.
Three Hawks ended the match with double-figure kills led by Tiffani Estep's 12. The senior also stepped up with eight blocks. Madeline Munroe had 11 slams and Morgan Cleveland added 10. Cheyenne McLemore posted 29 digs including a few key defensive stops late in the fourth set to stop the Lady Flames comeback effort.
Lee will get back on the sport court at Walker Arena for a non-conference contest with Emmanuel College on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The Lady Flames will then travel to Hoover, Ala. to take on the Sunshine State Conference in the South Region Crossover Tournament on Friday and Saturday.