GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – The Lady Railsplitters concluded their three-game road trip by winning their fourth straight match with a 3-0 sweep at Tusculum on Tuesday night inside of Pioneer Arena.
Lincoln Memorial (13-6, 9-4 SAC) – winners of five of its last six matches – faced little resistance from the Pioneers (3-15, 1-11 SAC), cruising to its seventh sweep of the season by scores of 25-16, 25-19, 25-22. The Lady Railsplitters beat Tusculum for the ninth time in the last 12 meetings and dropped the Pioneers to 1-15 in their last 16 matches.
Reigning South Atlantic Conference AstroTurf Player of the Week
Rylee Storms led all players with 14 kills on a .306 attack percentage to go along with 10 digs and three aces.
Tone Gill added 10 kills on a .533 clip with five digs, while
Kai Wesemann produced seven kills and
Lindsey Nartker chipped in six kills with 15 digs.
Emily Walter led the way with 33 assists, while
Erica Whiteaker supplied 15 digs.
Lincoln Memorial had 41 kills on a .198 attack percentage, while Tusculum accounted for only 32 kills on a .097 clip. The Pioneers also hurt themselves with nine service errors and five blocking errors.
Aubrey Hawkins and Gabby Gray led the team with eight kills apiece, while Carli Pigza had seven kills. Brooke Statler was the only other Pioneer with more than two kills, finishing with four on 10 attempts. Alyssa Rojas paced Tusculum with 29 assists to go with seven digs, while Melissa Mazur led all players with 18 digs.
The Lady Railsplitters racked up 16 kills while Tusculum managed only six in the opening set, which LMU led nearly from start to finish in a 25-16 victory. Wesemann and Storms led that offensive effort with four kills apiece. The Pioneers won the first two points of the set, but Lincoln Memorial went on an 8-1 run after that to take the lead for good. A pair of kills from Wesemann extended the Lady Railsplitters' lead to 18-9 later in the set, while back-to-back Tusculum attack errors made it 23-11. A late 5-0 Pioneer run cut down the final margin, but a kill from Storms ended the set to thwart any potential comeback bid.
LMU again built a big lead in set two, as kills from Storms and Gill pushed the visitors out to a commanding 17-10 advantage. However, the Pioneers used two kills from Hawkins and a block from Pigza to cut the deficit to 18-16 later in the set. After that, an LMU attack error made it a one-point set at 19-18, but the Lady Railsplitters closed on a 6-1 run to take a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-19 win. Tusculum committed three attack errors, a serving error and a bad set over that span to contribute to the Lady Railsplitters' run.
The third and final set was the most closely contested of the match as neither team led by more than three points until back-to-back kills from Nartker pushed the Lady Railsplitters in front 22-17. LMU maintained a five-point lead at 23-18 after a kill from Storms, but the Pioneers rattled off three straight points to force a Lady Railsplitter timeout. A service error then killed all of Tusculum's momentum, and Gill later closed out the 25-22 set victory and the straight-set sweep with a kill.
The Lady Railsplitters now return to Mary Mars Gymnasium for a four-match home stand that begins on Friday, October 19 with a matchup against Newberry.
