Lee volleyball battled back from two sets down to claim a thrilling 3-2 (21-25, 18-25, 25-20, 28-26, 15-9) victory over host Valdosta State University on Saturday afternoon.
It was the first Gulf South Conference (GSC) win of the season for the Lady Flames (1-4, 4-6). After a rugged four-match conference schedule, Lee will get a brief break before returning to action, staying on the road at West Georgia on Friday, Sept. 30.
“We had a tough start today and I’m not sure if that was caused by our short turnaround from our match at West Florida (in Pensacola) on Friday night,” said coach Andrea Hudson.
“However, the girls dug deep and worked hard to get the win.
“It was great to finally get going again in the win column.”
Dug deep might be an understatement. After losing the first two sets, the Lady Flames jumped to a 17-12 advantage in the third set and were able to turn back a rally by the Blazers that saw the lead cut to 18-17.
The story was the same in the fourth set. Lee leaped out front 15-10 only to see Valdosta cut the margin to 21-20 before coach Hudson called a timeout to calm her ladies. Kristi Farley grabbed her share of the spotlight in the 28-26 extended set win with a huge ace.
With the momentum going, the Lady Flames quickly captured a 7-3 lead in the short set, but this time the Blazers regrouped and mounted their final charge of the afternoon. Farley had two aces in the set and finished with six on the day.
Silvia Sartori returned from an ankle injury to blast 16 kills. She added another double-double to her year’s totals by coming up with 11 digs and a pair of blocks. Brooke Wilsman also collected a double-double, 13 kills and 17 digs.
Catherine Conley chipped in with eight kills and three blocks. Blaire Beamer and Carly Callahan played their roles at the net each posting eight and seven kills. Farley and Sadie Johnson dished off 25 assists each. Makayla Beebe paced the defense with 21 digs. The entertaining match saw Lee come away with 11 aces and Valdosta do even better with 13.