HARROGATE, Tenn. – A stingy defensive effort and a patient offensive approach helped the Lady Railsplitters scoot past the Coker Cobras in straight sets on Friday night at Mary Mars Gymnasium. 
 
Lincoln Memorial (9-5, 5-3 SAC) had to grind it out in sets one and two, but rolled through the Cobras (8-8, 0-7 SAC) in set three to snap its brief two-match losing streak by scores of 25-20, 25-23, 25-16. Coker, meanwhile, suffered its fifth straight loss overall and eighth consecutive South Atlantic Conference contest dating back to the 2017 season. 
 
The Lady Railsplitters also stayed unbeaten on their home court, improving to 8-0 at Mars Gym this season. 
 
"The first two sets, especially, we really weren't playing as crisply or cleanly as we wanted to be," said LMU head coach Jenny Michael. "The thing that we talked about in one of our timeouts was that even though we weren't executing at the level we wanted to, we stayed composed. We didn't panic, we didn't freak out and we had some other people step up at other positions.
 
"Finally, in that third set we started pulling away, they started making a few more mistakes and the score got a little lopsided." 
 
Coker failed to hit above .200 in any set and fell short of the .100 mark in two of the three frames, finishing with a cumulative .044 attack percentage. On the other end of the spectrum, the Lady Railsplitters hit over .200 in two of the three sets and produced a .210 mark overall. 
 
Rylee Storms had nine kills, nine digs and three blocks, while Kai Wesemann collected nine kills and three blocks on a .240 attack percentage. Emma Flowers produced seven kills on just 16 swings to account for a .375 clip, while Danielle Ged (5 kills, .250) and Alicia Kessler (4 kills) were also efficient on only 12 attempts apiece. 
 
Emily Walter led all players with 33 assists to go with 13 digs, while Erica Whiteaker had a match-high 20 digs. 
 
Taylor du Bray paced the Cobras with eight kills but was also responsible for 10 of the team's 24 errors. Olivia Cerick had six kills without an error on 21 swings, while Chloe Attram and Lana Strejcek had four kills apiece. Four different Coker players ended the match with a negative attack percentage. Rami Mullen had a double-double with 22 assists and 12 digs, while Cerick led the Cobras with 13 digs. 
 
The Lady Railsplitters were dominant defensively in the opening set, holding the Cobras to a meager .028 attack percentage and .250 kill percentage. The two teams exchanged mid-set runs to meet in a 15-15 stalemate. However, the Lady Railsplitters took the lead once and for all with a 4-1 spurt powered by a block, a kill and an ace from Kessler. Coker chopped the deficit down to 20-19 late, but that is as close as it would get as the Lady Railsplitters closed out the frame with a 5-1 flurry.  LMU's third block of the set finished off the 25-20 win. 
 
A 5-0 run aided by three LMU attack errors gave the Cobras control early in the second set as the visitors established leads of 9-5, 11-7 and 13-10. But a pair of kills from Storms capped a 4-0 run that put the Lady Railsplitters ahead 14-13. Neither team led by more than two points over the next passage of play, while Coker took a brief 22-21 lead on LMU's seven attack error of the set. However, a kill from Ged, a block and a Sarah Jones ace propelled the Lady Railsplitters to a 24-22 lead, and Storms later clinched the hard-fought 25-23 victory with a kill.
 
All told, the momentum-swinging second set featured 12 ties and seven lead changes.
 
"We just stayed calm and waited for our moment," Michael said. "That's something that we haven't really done in the past, even as recently as last weekend. We were trying to manufacture things a little bit too much at the wrong moment. But tonight we were more patient, waited for the right moment and took advantage of it when it was presented."   
 
The Lady Railsplitters put forth their most efficient offensive performance and suffocated the Cobras defensively to close out the match in set three. The Cobras, who hit -.050 in the frame, led 11-10 following an LMU ball-handling error, but the Lady Railsplitters raced away after that with an 8-1 spurt aided by five Coker attack errors. The visitors closed the gap to 19-15 before Lincoln Memorial used two kills from Flowers to end the set with a 6-1 flurry. 
 
LMU improved to 10-1 in the all-time series against Coker with the victory. 
 
A much stouter test awaits the Lady Railsplitters on Saturday afternoon as the 11-time SAC champion Wingate Bulldogs invade Mars Gym for a 2 p.m. first serve. The league-leading Bulldogs are off to a 15-0 start and have lost just six sets total all season.