It took a fourth set that featured 15 ties and nine lead changes, but the Lee volleyball team would not wilt under pressure in posting a thrilling 3-1 four-set (23-25, 25-17, 25-16, 28-26) victory over visiting University of Alabama in Huntsville on Tuesday evening inside Walker Arena.
The Lady Flames improved to 9-6 overall and more importantly 2-2 in Gulf South Conference play. The Chargers slipped to 6-4, 2-1. It will be a short turnaround for the Lady Flames. They will travel up the mountain on Wednesday for a 1 p.m.
makeup game with Young Harris College. Lee will return home on Saturday and host Shorter University at 2 p.m.
The first set was tied three times and had three lead changes before Lee broke away for the 25-23 win. The Chargers took control in the second set and pulled out to a big lead. Coach Christa Fabre called a timeout, regrouped her team, made some changes that might have helped produce needed momentum and turned the entire match back in favor of the Lady Flames.
Huntsville claimed the second set 25-17 but the Lady Flames came back with plenty of fire power to capture the third set and posted a convincing 25-16 score heading into the fourth set. The fourth stanza produced all kinds of fireworks before the celebration began after the Lady Flames scored their biggest victory of the young season with the 28-26 extra-points thriller.
The balanced Lee attack was paced by Abby Stroh and Carmen Perez, each had 11 kills. Stroh also came up with 16 digs and 16 receptions. Naomi Hockless turned in a sparkling eight kills outing. She posted a .467 attack mark and added four blocks. Allie Scurlock also had eight kills and four blocks. Macy Petty joined in with six kills, two service aces and a pair of blocks.
Ashton Middleton set her teammates up with 39 assists and is well over the 1000 assists mark for her career. KamrynHalpin paced her team in digs with 20 and also had a team leading 22 receptions.
Huntsville countered with 12 kills from Caroline Moyer and 11 kills from Zoe Smith. Savannah Rutledge set her teammates up with 38 assists. The Chargers had a total of 11 service aces. Moyer had four and Rutledge three. Autumn Mayes had 26 receptions and four blocks while Mary Grace Bundrant countered with five late kills. She also had a team leading six blocks.
Coach Christa Fabre’s thoughts:
“The momentum shift in the second set was crucial to being able to come in and take care of business in the third set and that carried into the fourth set. We had a big focus of playing with simplicity and freedom in the tight moments in that fourth set.
“We are excited about making the trip to Young Harris on Wednesday afternoon. It is a short turnaround for our girls, but we will be ready to play after an exciting win tonight. We have the benefit of not having a Thursday game and we look forward to coming back for a home game against Shorter on Saturday afternoon.”