The Lee volleyball team fell to Alabama Huntsville in straight sets (25-20, 25-22, 25-16) to end their season on Friday night in the Gulf South Conference tournament.
"It was disappointing I know for our seniors to see that they didn't quite perform as well as they wanted to tonight," said the 28 year head coach Andrea Hudson after the match.
Silvia Sartori led the Lady Flames with her 20th double-double of the year with 11 kills to go along with 10 digs. Hanna Matthews recorded 23 assists while MaKayla Beebe ended the game with 21 digs followed by Allie Koepfer with 13.
"Obviously, Silvia getting player of the year was a testament to her entire season and her career.
Tonight, I know she felt pressure and she didn't quite respond the way she had liked. I know it's the same way for MaKayla. MaKayla did a great job tonight and was working really hard defensively and we just couldn't put it together," when Hudson was asked about the seniors.
The match wrapped up the careers of six seniors (Beebe, Emily Bento, Collin Bowen, Claire McMasters, Alex Reuter, and Sartori).
The Chargers started the game with a 4-1 run before stretching the lead to 12-6 forcing Lee to use a timeout. UAH maintained the lead before taking the set 25-20.
Lee struggled to get any offense going in the second set hitting .036 and killing 11 attacks while committing nine errors. Lee took an 8-7 lead for their first lead of the game before UAH had to call a timeout. The Chargers quickly took back the lead 10-9 before the two teams went back and forth. The Alabama squad eventually stretched out the lead to two points before taking the set 25-22.
In set three UAH took advantage of a negative hitting percentage by the Lady Flames to run away with it 25-16 ending the match on an eight to one run.
"All year long we had been working with this team about how import it was to take care of things on our side of the net," said Coach Hudson. "It was something we preached a lot during the year. It was unfortunate tonight that didn't happen for us."
Alabama Huntsville was paced by Kendall Schabert with nine kills while Sabrina Duncan recorded 26 assists. Haley Hop led the Charger defense with 25 digs followed by Abby Brooks with 14.
"When we played this team the two times prior, we had a lot more fight in us and we had a lot more going on, on our side of the net," concluded Hudson.
The Lady Flames end the season with an 18-14 record and were 13-3 in the GSC, their most conference wins since joining the NCAA.