HARROGATE, Tenn. - The Newberry College (9-6, 1-1 SAC) volleyball team traveled to Lincoln Memorial University (9-2, 2-0 SAC) to face off against the Railsplitters in a conference game on Friday evening. The outlook looked positive after Newberry was on the winning side of a hard-fought opening set. The Railsplitters rallied; however, and won the ensuing three sets by scores of 25-14, 25-15 and 25-21 to take the match.

The opening set began with the teams exchanging points until a four-point run by LMU put the Railsplitters ahead 10-5. Head coach David Nicholson called a timeout and regrouped his team. The scarlet and gray responded to their coach's words and put together a few runs of their own before finally evening the score at 22-22. Brianna Blakely (Houston, Texas) served well late in the match and helped the team into the lead. LMU battled back into the match again before a pair of points won off of Kember Lichtie's (Amarillo, Texas) serves sealed the opener 28-26.

The second set was slightly more one sided and saw LMU open with a 10-3 lead. Blakely again used her serves to draw Newbery back into the match, but an 8-1 run for the Railsplitters put it out of reach.

With the match tied at one set apiece, Newberry opened the third set with a 5-1 lead. The scarlet and gray surrendered another 8-1 run to fall behind yet again. Newberry stayed with the Railsplitters into the midway point of the set, but fell victim to another lopsided run and dropped the second set.

Newberry claimed the first five points of the fourth set but allowed the Railsplitters to claw back into it. Newberry led late by a score of 19-17, but the LMU attackers proved to be highly effective. A series of kills by a variety of Railsplitters leveled the score and eventually secured the victory for LMU.

Despite the loss, Fernanda Frey (Sao Paulo, Brazil) shined for Newberry on both sides of the ball. She led the team in both kills and digs with 15 and 27, respectively. Lichtie continued her remarkable senior season with her second consecutive double-double, recording 12 kills and 16 digs.

Newberry faces off against another SAC foe on Saturday with a match against Carson-Newman. The match is scheduled to begin at noon after being moved up earlier in the week.