Lee Senior Night (L-R) Coach Fabre, White, Petty, Scurlock, Halpin, and Coach Blanchard
The Lee volleyball team ran into a hungry Valdosta State team on Friday evening in the annual Volley For A Cure event staged inside Walker Arena. The Lady Flames also honored four on Senior Night in the 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-16) loss to the Blazers.
Before the match began, Coach Christa Fabre and her assistant Cece Blanchard took time for special presentations to seniors Taylor White, Macy Petty, Allie Scurlock, Kamryn Halpin and their families.
The balanced Blazer attack seemed to have too much power for the Lady Flames.
Jojo Smith led the way with eight kills but Christina Pettigrew and Katie Callenberger followed close behind with seven slams while Audrey Bennett, who is actually the team setter, had seven kills to go along with 30 assists. All totaled the visitors had an attack mark of .290. The Blazers were also strong at the net with 18 blocks compared to just eight for the Lady Flames.
Lee’s Naomi Hockless turned in another solid effort. She led the team with 10 kills in 17 attempts for a .471 hitting percentage. Sophia Lippert and Macy Petty joined in with six kills each. Petty also produced on senior night with a .455 attack mark and four blocks. A key for the Valdosta victory was holding Abby Stroh to only two kills.
The Lady Flames only led twice the entire evening but did battle hard to force eight ties overall, five coming when they forced the Blazers into two timeouts in the 25-23 second-set loss.
With the defeat Lee drops to 15-14 overall and 6-8 in conference play. Valdosta ended a six-game losing streak with the victory and improved to 16-12 and 8-5 in the important GSC standings. The Lady Flames will return to action on Sunday afternoon and will host West Georgia in another important Gulf South Conference contest at 1 p.m.
Coach Christa Fabre's thoughts:
"We came out flat tonight and sometimes that happens when there are times like Senior Night. Our girls were emotional and give Valdosta credit, they came out ready to play. They had not won since before the crossover tournament and they showed they are a much better team than that.
"We have to regroup and get ready for an important game against West Georgia on Sunday. We will not be allowed a practice day because of the rules so we will just have to be ready against another good opponent. Our girls realize there is a lot on the line in the last couple of games.
"Naomi (Hockless) continues to improve and play better for us in the middle. Macy (Petty) also did some good things for us tonight, but we made a lot of mistakes in a lot of other areas and Valdosta was able to capitalize on our errors. (Audrey) Bennett was really good from her setter position but I have seen performances like that before, even double-doubles."