EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- The Cedarville Yellow Jackets (2-0) rallied to steal a 27-25 victory in set one, grabbing all of the momentum to pace a straight-set triumph over the Lady Railsplitters (0-2) in NCAA Division II volleyball action at the Dunn Hospitality Classic in Evansville, Ind. Friday night. Lincoln Memorial fell by set scores of 25-27, 16-25 and 21-25.
 
Lincoln Memorial was dropped in straight sets for the second-consecutive match to open the 2014 campaign as the 23rd-ranked West Florida Argonauts posted a 3-0 win over the Lady Railsplitters in Friday's early afternoon tilt.
 
Friday's nightcap marked the first meeting all-time between the Lady Railsplitters and the Yellow Jackets, who entered the 2014 season having captured back-to-back Great Midwest Athletic Conference titles.
 
The Lady Railsplitters continued to struggle offensively, following up a .054 clip in Friday's opening match by hitting .127 with 30 kills and 17 errors on 102 total attempts versus Cedarville. The Yellow Jackets were markedly more efficient, hitting .254 with 51 kills despite accruing 21 swinging errors.
 
Four Yellow Jacket errors and a Kendra Gephart (Morrow, Ohio) kill raced Lincoln Memorial out to an early 5-1 advantage in the opening stanza, but Cedarville countered with a 4-0 run to knot the set at 5-5. MaRanda Boddie (Springfield, Ohio) broke the tie with a put away, preceding four-straight attacking errors by the opposition to increase the LMU edge to 10-5. The Lady Railsplitters extended the lead to 14-7 on an Allison Beavers (Tomball, Texas) kill, but Cedarville swung the tide of the set by taking nine of the next 12 points, capped with back-to-back LMU errors, to square the set at 18 apiece.
 
A Cedarville service error and attack error provided the Lady Railsplitters with a two-point cushion, all before the Yellow Jackets ran off a 5-2 rally - bookended by Alyssa Barkley and Amanda Bell kills - to assume a 23-22 lead. The Lady Railsplitters would fight back, earning the decisive set point on two occasions. The Yellow Jackets erased the first with another kill from Barkley, while Hannah Wagner squared the match with a kill after the Lady Railsplitters gained a brief 25-24 edge. Back-to-back attack errors abruptly ended LMU's first set with Cedarville nabbing a 27-25 win.
 
The Yellow Jackets carried that momentum swing into the second set, collecting 10 kills in the first 18 rallies to mount a 12-6 lead. Beavers and Boddie notched a kill apiece in a 4-1 run for Lincoln Memorial, which shrunk the deficit to 13-10, but Cedarville countered with a steady 8-5 run in the ensuing passage of play to extend its cushion to 21-15. Gephart's kill cut the gap back to five, but the Yellow Jackets finished with four-consecutive kills including three-straight from Krissy Pratt to wrap up a 25-16 set victory and assume a commanding 2-0 lead.  
 
The first portion of the third set was a back-and-forth affair featuring seven ties between the two squads. After the Lady Railsplitters broke the sixth stalemate with a Kiera Holland (Columbia, S.C.) kill to make it 12-11, Cedarville proceeded to rip off a 7-0 run paced by two kills apiece from Pratt and Wagner. Holland briefly halted the bleeding with another kill, but the Yellow Jackets extended their advantage to 23-15 with a 5-2 run. Four Cedarville attack errors along with kills from Brooke Fleeman (Nashville, Tenn.) and Boddie highlighted a late Lady Railsplitter charge, but Tori Thompson completed the sweep with the clinching put away.
 
Middle blocker Jazzy Oates (Franklin, Tenn.) and Allison Beavers led the LMU attack with six kills apiece. Oates collected that mark on only eight attempts for a .625 attacking percentage. Both Kiera Holland and Kendra Gephart chipped in five kills apiece, while Gephart notched a team-leading 10 digs. MaRanda Boddie accounted for four kills, four block assists and a solo block. Abby Cash (New Carlisle, Ohio) provided 21 assists and six digs, while Casey Mense (Littleton, Colo.) pitched in nine digs.
 
The Lady Railsplitters failed to hit above .100 in two of the three sets, posting a .083 effort in set one and a .075 mark in the third and final set. Lincoln Memorial was most effective in the second frame, hitting .269 with nine kills and two miscues on 26 attempts.
 
The volleyball team resumes play in the Dunn Hospitality Classic at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, challenging North Alabama inside of the University of Southern Indiana's Physical Activities Center. The Lady Railsplitters will be look to avoid dropping three-straight matches for the first time since the 2009 season. Live stats are available for Saturday's tilt against the Lions.