MARS HILL, N.C. -- The Lady Railsplitters (14-9, 10-5 SAC) outlasted the Mars Hill Lions (7-15, 6-9 SAC) in five sets in South Atlantic Conference action Tuesday night in Mars Hill, N.C. Lincoln Memorial captured its fourth straight win with set scores of 22-25, 25-22, 25-22, 19-25 and 15-4. With that, the Lady 'Splitters snapped a two-match losing streak in Mars Hill's Stanford Arena which dates back to the 2012 campaign.
 
Freshman outside hitter Kiera Holland (Columbia, S.C.) and senior pin player Allison Beavers (Tomball, Texas) paced the Lady Railsplitters offensively. Holland collected a team-leading 15 kills while also matching a team-high with 16 digs. The Columbia, S.C. native added three solo blocks and four block assists. Beavers posted a season-high 13 kills on a .364 attack percentage, adding seven digs to her stat ledger. Graduate student MaRanda Boddie (Springfield, Ohio) tallied nine kills on only 17 attempts for a gaudy .412 attack percentage, while sophomore Brooke Fleeman (Nashville, Tenn.) pitched in eight kills. Sophomore setter Abby Cash (New Carlisle, Ohio) governed the offense with a match-high 43 assists to go alongside nine digs and a pair of block assists. Junior Casey Mense (Littleton, Colo.) matched Holland's team-high number with 16 digs, while Kendra Gephart (Morrow, Ohio) and Bristol Snider (Chattanooga, Tenn.) added 11 scoops apiece.
 
The Lady Railsplitters hit .216 as a team, but a massive disparity existed between the sets they won and the ones in which they lost. The Lady Railsplitters attacked at .136 and .077 clips in the first and fourth sets while hitting .344, .250 and .467 in the second, third and fifth frames. 
 
The Lady Railsplitters and Lions collided in a tie on five separate instances early in the first set as a kill by Boddie knotted the frame at 10-10 and kicked off what would become a 6-0 rally for the Blue and Gray. A pair of Mars Hill attack errors, another Boddie kill and an Beavers kill composed that 6-0 run that pushed the Lady Railsplitters in front 16-10. The Lions flipped the script quickly, though, using two Lauren Hochstetler kills and a termination from Rebecca Butler to rally off six unanswered points and tie the set at 17-17. Two Mars Hill blunders pushed the Lady Railsplitters back in front at 19-17, but the Lions claimed five of the next points, capped with a Devon Felts kills, to assume a 22-20 advantage. Another Beavers kills positioned the Lady Railsplitters only a point back at 23-22, but a kill by Mary Kate Griffin and an LMU hitting error ended the first set in Mars Hill's favor.
 
It was emphatic bounce back by the Lady Railsplitters in set two. A kill by Victoria Kaiser provided the Lions with a 1-0 edge, but Lincoln Memorial would not trail for the remainder of the set. The Lady Railsplitters reeled off a 9-3 opening run, paced by two kills apiece from Beavers and Fleeman, to take command of the set. Mars Hill regained some semblance of stability by taking points on a service error and a Butler kill, but the Lady Railsplitters ripped off seven straight points to assume control at 16-5. The Lions were unable to trim the deficit to less than 10 down the stretch as Holland finished off the dominant 25-11 victory with a kill. The Lady Railsplitters hit .344 in the frame with 12 kills and only one error, while Mars Hill was forced into 12 errors with only eight kills over that span for a -.095 attack percentage.
 
The third set featured 13 different ties as the Lady Railsplitters and Lions went back and forth for nearly the entirety of the watershed frame. The two teams were knotted at 16-16 following a Jazzy Oates (Franklin, Tenn.) kill, but Mars Hill collected the point in four of the next five rallies to assume a 20-17 edge. Two kills by Boddie and another by Fleeman, along with a Mars Hill attack error, helped the Lady Railsplitters fight back to tie the set for the final time at 21-21. Lincoln Memorial maintained the momentum, using a Fleeman termination and another Mars Hill miscue to assume a 23-21 lead. Griffin pulled the Lions to within one at 23-22, but a Beavers kill and a Butler attack error awarded the Lady Railsplitters a 25-22 victory.
 
The Lady Railsplitters found themselves facing a 14-8 deficit in the fourth set, but they clawed all the way back to take the lead at 16-15 on a kill by Holland. That lead was short-lived, though, as the Lions earned four straight points thanks to three straight LMU attack errors to plow in front 19-16. From that juncture, Mars Hill closed the frame with a 6-3 advantage, sending the match into a decisive fifth frame with another Hochstetler kill.
 
The Lady Railsplitters dominated the fifth frame from start to finish, using three Mars Hill attack errors and kills by Holland and Beavers to take the first five points. Lincoln Memorial relinquished only four points in the stanza, securing the 15-4 triumph with an Oates service ace. The Lady Railsplitters finished the set with seven kills and no attack errors while the Lions committed six swinging errors with only four kills to show for it.
 
The Lions hit .108 as a team in the match, compiling 59 kills with 38 errors, tied for the most by an opposing unit during the 2014 campaign. Mars Hill is only the fourth LMU opponent to commit 30 or more attacking errors this season. Mary Kate Griffin led all players with 18 kills to go alongside 12 digs. Rebecca Butler notched 12 kills which were offset by 12 errors, but she led the Lions with 21 digs. Lauren Hochstetler posted 10 kills and 13 scoops. Sara Fahrenbrook tallied 31 assists and 10 digs, while Andie Russell pitched in 16 assists.
 
The Lady Railsplitters return to Mary Mars Gymnasium for a South Atlantic Conference weekend set, beginning with a battle against the Lenoir-Rhyne Bears at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 24.