Playing with its two leading players, Carmen Perez and Sara Palumbo, sidelined with injuries, the Lee University volleyball team fell to visiting Union University 3-1 (25-20, 21-25, 25-22, 25-23) on Tuesday evening inside Walker Arena. The loss dropped the Lady Flames to 8-6 in Gulf South Conference play and 14-12 overall. The Bulldogs improved to 4-10 and 6-17.
Coach Christa Fabre will regroup her squad and get ready for two more big home events this week. Lee will host Mississippi College on Thursday (6 p.m.) and then entertain West Alabama in the annual Volley For a Cure event on Friday at 7 p.m.
The Lady Flames seniors will also be honored on Senior Night.
In a contest that featured each team having runs of their own, the first set was tied nine times and had eight lead changes before the Bulldogs pulled out the 25-20 win. Overall, the visitors had 60 kills during the entire match and 159 attacks. The Lady Flames only had 43 kills and 135 attacks. Union hit .233 and Lee .193.
Freshman Payton Danley had 14 kills and a .385 attack percentage while Julia Davis, playing for the first time since recovering from an illness, also had 14 kills and a .297 kill mark. Berra Soyler finished with 29 assists while Grace Mazzocca had five blocks. The Lady Flames totaled 12 blocks overall and held the visitors to 10.
Union came up with 11 aces but had 18 service errors. On the other hand, Izzy Denton had 21 digs and three aces for the Lady Flames. Mikayla Buhr also totaled double-digit digs (10). Lee finished the evening with seven aces and seven service errors.
The Lady Bulldogs had three players in double-figure kills. It was Reese Owens who gave Lee the most problems with 18 slams and a .325 hitting percentage. Vanja Stefanovic countered with 12 blocks and Sydney Whittaker totaled 10 blocks. Dylan Tolliver served up five aces and Owens added to her double-double with 15 digs.
Coach Christa Fabre's Thoughts:
"It is a tough thing it is almost like a new group out there. We need someone to step up and we allowed fear to step in and the we didn't handle the pressure. Defensively were not strong and were not locked in.
We need to get the group in sync together and and have them get more comfortable with one another."