HARROGATE, Tenn. – Lincoln Memorial used convincing wins in the first and third sets to bookend a tightly-contested second frame and earn a sweep over visiting Newberry.
The Lady Railsplitters (14-6, 10-4 SAC) had one more kill than Newberry (8-14, 3-12 SAC) on the evening but committed 17 less attack errors than did the Wolves. Lincoln Memorial tallied 11 service aces and nearly doubled Newberry's block total, stuffing the Wolves eight times.
The second set, a 25-21 win for the Lady Railsplitters, was the most competitive of the evening. Lincoln Memorial used five straight points, keyed by a kill from reigning SAC AstroTurf Player of the Week Rylee Storms and helped by three Newberry attack errors, to open up a 12-7 lead.
Lincoln Memorial's advantage hovered around five points until the late stages. Trailing by six,
Mary Siebert started a run with a termination. A ball-handling error cut the deficit to four;
Lacie Wood combined with
Sidra Triplett on a block, then trimmed the advantage to two with a kill. Siebert answered an LMU timeout with another kill, slicing the deficit to 20-19.
But Lincoln Memorial's lead proved to be too much to overcome as the Lady Railsplitters scored four of the next five points and went on to take a four-point win in the set.
The match was bookended by lopsided results. The first set saw the Wolves fall 25-15. Lincoln Memorial had just six kills in the third, but opened a 15-1 advantage early and tallied seven service aces in the frame to take the set 25-8.
Newberry hit -.020 on the evening with 25 kills and 27 errors on 101 attempts.
Angela Gore led all players from both teams in both kills (9) and digs (15), while
Mary Siebert added eight kills.
Lacie Wood had five kills and led the team with four blocks.
Newberry was without the services of
Toni-Anne Whitlow, who entered the evening ranked fifth in the league in kills and provides nearly half a block per set.
Lincoln Memorial hit .178 with four players contributing at least four kills. Emily Walter dished out at least four assists, while Erica Whiteaker, who joined Storms in being honored by the conferece last week, finished with 11 digs.
Newberry returns to the court tomorrow to face Tusculum, a team the Wolves defeated in five sets at Eleazer Arena on Sept. 22. First serve from Pioneer Arena is set for 2:00 p.m.
