The Lee volleyball team made the long journey to take part in the Tiger-Reddie Invitational held on the campus of Ouachita Baptist and Henderson State University. The Lady Flames dropped their first two matches in the event on Friday and fell to 6-4 on the year. They will complete the invitational play on Saturday at 2 p.m. facing University of Arkansas at Monticello.
Truman State University 3, Lee 1 (25-21, 21-25, 15-25, 24-26)
After shaking off the early morning loss the Lady Flames battled to the end against the Bulldogs from Kirksville, Missouri.
Lee claimed the first set, Truman came back to grab set two and walked away with the third set to go up 2-1.
The Lady Flames refused to go away and traded point after point in the fourth set with the Bulldogs. It was deadlocked at 17, 19, and 22. Lee finally grabbed the lead and had set point at 24-22. Truman called timeout and came back out, winning four straight points in claiming 26-24.
Macy Petty led the Lady Flames with 13 kills and a .520 attack mark. Carmen Perez had nine kills and Allie Scurlockjoined in with six. Ashton Middleton dished off 32 assists. The Lady Flames had their service aces working with Perez having four and Petty, Julia Davis and Scurlock with two apiece. Kamryn Halpin went to the floor for 13 digs and Perez came up with seven.
Ouachita Baptist 3, Lee 0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-20)
The Lady Flames got off to a slow start and never completely recovered against the Arkansas team that had found the going rough in a couple of Texas invitational tournaments over the past two weekends. Coach Christa Fabre also sent her team into action with a couple of key players left behind in Cleveland due to sickness and injuries.
Allie Scurlock had nine kills and Julia Davis eight to lead the Lady Flames. Naomi Hockless added seven and Carmen Perez and Macy Petty five apiece. Ashton Middleton set her teammates up with 31 assists while Kamryn Halpin had eight digs as did Davis.
Coach Christa Fabre’s thoughts:
“It was a challenging couple of matches today. Ouachita’s offense was evenly spread with three attackers in different positions with 10 kills. We struggled in serve receiving which is normally an area we show a lot of confidence in.
“We struggled to terminate against Truman. Our serve receiving picked up and we were more in rhythm but we game them too many opportunities to score.
“Macy Petty had a great match hitting .520 with 13 kills. We just needed more of our team to step up in that category.