WINGATE, N.C. – The Lady Railsplitters fell victim to a potent Wingate attack and saw their eight-game winning streak fall by the wayside in a straight-sets loss (18-25, 17-25, 20-25) in South Atlantic Conference volleyball action on Friday night inside of Cuddy Arena.
The 10-time defending SAC regular-season champion Wingate Bulldogs (13-0, 5-0 SAC) hit .346 as a team and amassed 49 kills to hand the Lady Railsplitters (8-2, 5-1 SAC) their first loss since September 2 as well as their first SAC setback. The Bulldogs also perpetuated a history of dominance in Cuddy Arena, saddling Lincoln Memorial with its seventh straight 3-0 loss in Cuddy Arena dating back to the 2010 season.
The Lady Railsplitters hit .185 as a team and matched a season-low mark with just 27 kills. That effort snapped a streak of eight-straight matches hitting above the .200 mark, which was the longest such streak for the program since 1999.
Junior outside hitter
Kiera Holland (Columbia, S.C.) led the way for the Lady Railsplitters with 11 kills and three block assists on a .296 attack percentage, while redshirt-sophomore
Tone Gill (Nashville, Tenn.) had six kills and a pair of blocks. No other LMU player produced more than two kills in the contest. Senior
Abby Cash (New Carlisle, Ohio) had 21 assists and seven digs, while
Erica Whiteaker (Kingston Springs, Tenn.) - making her first start of the season - led the team with 12 digs.
The first set saw the Bulldogs race out to a big early lead and use their explosive offense to stiff-arm a couple of LMU runs. The Bulldogs opened on a 7-1 run and later extended their lead to 10-4 on a kill from Katie Bludau. Trailing 13-6 following a service error, Lincoln Memorial fought and clawed its way back into the set, trimming the deficit to 13-11 on a kill from Gill. However, the Bulldogs ripped off a 10-1 run over the next passage of play to build an insurmountable 23-12 cushion. The Lady Railsplitters closed the gap late, but a kill from Tyler Smith clinched Wingate's 25-18 win. All told, Wingate hit .424 in the frame and racked up 17 kills to keep the Lady Railsplitters at arm's length.
Wingate started fast again in set two, jumping out to an 8-2 lead following back-to-back LMU attack errors. The Lady Railsplitters answered, however, as Holland paced a 5-1 run with four kills to trim the Bulldogs' lead to 9-7. But after that, Wingate began to steadily increase its lead, pulling ahead 17-10 on kills from Abby Saehler and Oakley Attaway as well as a Bludau service ace. Lincoln Memorial never trailed by less than six points for the remainder of the set, as the Bulldogs capped the 25-17 win on a kill from Bludau.
The third frame was the most competitive of the match, as the Lady Railsplitters used a kill from
Samantha Cash (New Carlisle, Ohio) and a Wingate attack error to pull ahead 6-3. Lincoln Memorial held the lead briefly, but the Bulldogs never trailed again after grabbing a 9-8 lead on an LMU miscue. The set was tied on five different occasions after that, with the final tie coming at 13-13 following a Bulldog ball-handling error. But Wingate went on a 7-2 spurt over the next passage to take a 20-15 lead on a kill from Saehler. The Lady Railsplitters pulled within two late in the set at 22-20, but Wingate ended it on a 3-0 run to clinch the straight-sets sweep.
Saehler and Tyler Smith combined for 26 kills and just three errors to lead the way for the Bulldogs. Saehler had a match-high 14 kills on a .524 attack percentage, while Smith converted 12 of her 14 attempts for a spectacular .857 attack percentage. Attaway added seven kills, while Bludau tallied six kills. Rachel Alles manufactured 37 assists and Treslyn Ortiz paced the Bulldogs with nine digs.
With the loss, the Lady Railsplitters fall to 0-21 all-time against the Bulldogs, who have now won 156 of their last 161 SAC matches.
Next up, the Lady Railsplitters head over to Hartsville, S.C. to face the Coker Cobras for a 2 p.m. SAC match on Saturday. Live stats and video links are available at www.LMURailsplitters.com.
