Silvia Sartori powered home a career-high 33 kills as the Lee volleyball team scored an impressive, 3-2 road victory over Alabama Huntsville to remain undefeated in the Gulf South Conference on Friday night.
The Lady Flames trailed 13-11 in the final set before using a 4-0 run off the serve of freshman Hannah Longley to ground the Chargers. Fittingly it was Sartori slamming home the match-point.
Sartori recorded a double-double as she tallied 15 digs to go along with her 33 slams.
Hanna Matthews led all players in the field with 53 assists while MaKayla Beebe paced the defensive effort with 24 digs.
Alex Reuter also put up double digit kills with 10 to go with five blocks. Allie Koepfer was a kill shy of her first double-double of the season with nine kills and 18 digs. Bailey Kress delivered 10 kills from the right side to aid in the victory.
"What an exciting match tonight. It was such a team effort," said head coach Andrea Hudson. "Big night for Silvia with 33 kills and her leadership really helped down the stretch. I'm proud of how the girls came back at the end."
In the opening set Lee rallied to score four straight points for a 25-21 win. The second set was another back and forth affair until coach Andrea Hudson's squad used a five point run behind three Sartori kills to win the set 25-20.
The Chargers did not go away quietly however as they flipped the momentum with 25-22 third set victory. UAH would force the tiebreaker as they rallied from a 21-18 deficit in set four to win 25-22.
Poised by Sartori's leadership and the pin-point serving of Longley Lee answered the bell one more time with a 15-13 comeback win in the fifth set.
The Lady Flames were playing in their first five-set match of the year while the Chargers are now 1-2 when a match goes the distance.
UAH was paced by Isabelle Barnes with 15 kills followed closely by Abby Brooks and Anna LeDuc who recorded 14 kills apiece. Sabrina Duncan was credited with 51 of the Chargers 57 assists while Haley Hop led all athletes with 27 digs.
Lee improves to 6-8 on the year and a perfect 4-0 in conference play. The loss drops the Chargers to 13-3 and 3-1 in league action.
The Lady Flames wrap up the road trip Saturday at Montevallo with first serve coming at 3 p.m. Coach Hudson and her squad return home to the Sport Court in Walker Arena next Friday to take on Christian Brothers at 7 p.m.