CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Heroic performances from Lindsey Nartker, Erica Whiteaker and Tone Gill propelled the Lady Railsplitters in a four-set win over the Queens Royals on Friday night at the Levine Center. 
 
Nartker led all players with 15 kills and corralled a career-high 24 digs, Whiteaker racked up 39 digs, matched a career-high mark with eight assists and tallied a match-high three aces, and Gill amassed 11 kills and six blocks to lead Lincoln Memorial (11-6, 7-4 SAC) in its 25-16, 14-25, 25-15, 25-20 South Atlantic Conference triumph over the Royals (9-11, 5-8 SAC). 
 
LMU sweeps the regular-season series from the defending SAC tournament champions to improve to 9-7 in the all-time series with the victory. Queens suffered its third straight loss overall, while the Lady Railsplitters improved to 3-1 in their last four matches. 
 
Rylee Storms added nine kills, 10 digs and two blocks, Emily Walter had a double-double with 38 assists, 13 digs and five kills, Danielle Ged deposited seven kills with a team-high .438 attack percentage, and Kai Wesemann contributed five kills without an error in only one set of action. 
 
Jordan Proszenyak led Queens with 14 kills to go with 22 digs, while Casey Tarvin and Logan Witt had 11 kills apiece. Tarvin also had a double-double with 20 digs. Chanel Turner added nine kills, Alexandria Becerra had a team-high 23 assists, and Jaycee Jones led the team with 25 digs. 
 
The Lady Railsplitters finished with seven more kills than the Royals (55-48) and reached that mark much more efficiently, posting a .243 attack percentage compared to Queens' .153 effort. LMU hit over .200 in three of the four sets.  
 
The Lady Railsplitters had 15 kills on only 29 attempts without an error in the first set – good for a ridiculous .517 attack percentage – and closed out the frame on a 17-4 run to roll past the Royals 25-16. Queens was in command early and racked up nine kills before committing its first error to build a 12-8 cushion. However, Whiteaker's second ace of the set and a combined block from Gill and Nartker capped a 6-0 run that completely turned the tide in LMU's favor. After the Royals closed the gap to 17-14, the Lady Railsplitters rattled off six unanswered points again to blow it wide open. Two Queens service errors later ended the set. 
 
The Royals responded from the blowout loss in set one by returning the favor in set two, hitting an efficient .469 with 16 kills and only one error to even the match with a 25-14 victory. Queens never trailed and raced out to a 7-2 lead early. A kill from Storms helped the Lady Railsplitters cut the deficit to 10-8, but that was as close as it would get. Back-to-back kills from Witt pushed the Queens lead to 15-9, while kills from Tarvin and Turner expanded it to 23-13 late. The Royals concluded the wire-to-wire victory with a block by Lindsay Elmore and Turner.    
 
The trend of lopsided victories continued in set three as the Lady Railsplitters took a 2-1 lead with a dominant 25-15 triumph. An unforgiving block paved the way for Lincoln Memorial, as the visitors limited Queens to only 10 kills and forced 12 errors to power the victory. Four early blocks pushed LMU out to a commanding 13-3 lead. The Royals fought back and cut their deficit to 15-10 to force head coach Jenny Michael to call a timeout. The Lady Railsplitters' lead never dipped below five points, though, while kills from Nartker and Gill bookended a late 4-0 run that essentially put the set away. Queens' 12th attack error of the frame concluded the Lady Railsplitters' win.  
 
A 9-1 run proved to be the difference for the Lady Railsplitters in set four, when they closed out the match with a 25-20 victory. A kill from Witt pushed the Royals ahead 14-11 at the midway point, but kills from Nartker and Gill sparked that 9-1 flurry that put Lincoln Memorial in front 20-15. Queens was unable to recover from that as kills from Wesemann and Nartker later wrapped up the match-clinching win. 
 
The Lady Railsplitters, who remain in sole possession of fourth place in the SAC standings, will pay the Catawba Indians a visit on Saturday at 2 p.m. LMU is 13-2 against Catawba in the last 15 meetings between the two teams.