Squaring off with a perennial NCAA D2 power, the Lee volleyball team fell to No. 20 West Florida, 3-0 on Friday evening in Gulf South Conference play from Walker Arena.
The Lady Flames dropped the first two sets (25-19, 25-19) before the Lady Argonauts put things away in set three, 25-18. Lee made a run to cut it to 18-16 in the final set before West Florida pulled away to complete sweep.
Silvia Sartori led the Lee attack posting a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs.
Freshman Emily Bento came through with seven slams as did junior Blaire Beamer. Catherine Conley added six kills.
"I thought overall we played a better match than we played in our win on Tuesday," said head coach Andrea Hudson. "West Florida is a really good team and we they showed that tonight."
Sadie Johnson and Hillary Hoffpauir split time at the setter position. Johnson registered 18 assists while Hoffpauir had 14 helpers. Stephanie Hernandez led the team with 12 digs.
After posting just nine kills and 12 attack errors in set one the Lady Flames improved as the match went on. Lee had 11 kills in set two and just six errors and 17 slams and eight mistakes in the third and final set.
"We are still giving away too many points," noted Hudson. "We having been working on that in practice and I told the girls that it would be tough to win if we gave West Florida anything."
The Arognauts were led by Autumn Duyn's nine slams. The balanced attack also featured seven kills by Rachel Neblett, six for Corisha Smith and Cora Bidlack and five for Kathryn Torre.
Monique StCyr set the offensive up with 30 assists. Neblett helped anchor the defensive effort with six blocks while Smith added 11 digs for the visitors.
The loss drops Lee to 5-4 overall and 1-3 in the GSC. The win propels West Florida to 10-2 on the season and a perfect 3-0 in conference play.
The road will not get any easier for Hudson and the Lady Flames as they host Valdosta State tomorrow at 2 p.m. The Lady Blazers entered Friday's action at Shorter with a perfect 7-0 mark, including three conference victories.
"We will face another tough test tomorrow," added Hudson.