HARROGATE, Tenn. -- Carried by a balanced offensive attack, the Lady Railsplitters remained perfect on their home court with a 3-1 South Atlantic Conference victory over Catawba on Tuesday evening at Mary Mars Gymnasium. Lincoln Memorial (8-3, 4-1 SAC) moved to 7-0 in Harrogate this season and won its fourth conference match in five tries, while the Indians (5-11, 1-4 SAC) lost their third straight match by scores of 19-25, 25-17, 25-23 and 25-19. 
 
"Catawba had an amazing track record coming in," said head coach Jenny Michael. "Not necessarily in wins and losses, but they have taken three conference opponents to five. We knew that they had the ability. That first set, they took it to us. They were blasting serves at us." 
 
The Lady Railsplitters looked completely out of sync in the opening set as the Indians led from start to finish, but Lincoln Memorial made the right adjustments and fought tooth and nail to win the next three sets to remain in sole possession of third place in the league standings. 
 
"That's what it's all about," Michael said. "You're practicing and you're competing, and competitions are just opportunities, kind of like exams, to measure where you're at, what you're doing well and what you're not doing well. And where we failed in that first set, I was very proud with how we came together. 
 
"Even though we didn't start great in that second set, we didn't have to call a timeout or lose another set for us to be able to come together, figure it out and make change on the court." 
 
For the third straight match, the Lady Railsplitters were without their leading hitter, freshman Emma Flowers. With the outside hitter out, Lincoln Memorial relied on a slew of seven players that produced at least three kills. Lindsey Nartker and Tone Gill led the way with 10 kills apiece, while Rylee Storms had nine, Alicia Kessler had seven and Danielle Ged chipped in six. 
 
"One of the things that we spoke about in practice is not any one person has to carry this burden," Michael said. "It can be a team effort. If everybody just gets one or two more kills than we can have a successful night on the floor as a team."
 
The Lady Railsplitters hit .188 as a team while limiting Catawba to a .092 mark. Emily Walter finished in triple-double territory with 37 assists, 14 digs and four kills, while Erica Whiteaker (16) and Sarah Jones (12) combined for 28 digs. Nartker also finished with double-digit digs with 11. Ged and Gill fueled the defensive effort as well with 11 combined blocks.   
 
Offense was hard to come by for the Lady Railsplitters in the opening set, as the home team hit just .086 compared to Catawba's .222 clip. The Indians also produced four aces in the set. Catawba jumped out to an early 6-1 lead, but the Lady Railsplitters hung around and closed the gap to 12-9 on a service error. However, Catawba scored six of the next eight points to extend their lead to 18-11. LMU never trailed by less than four after that, while Ensor capped the 25-19 Indian win with a kill.  
 
After that sluggish start, the Lady Railsplitters settled into a rhythm in set two, hitting .242 while holding Catawba to a meager -.024 mark. Catawba again started fast and built leads of 6-1 and 10-5, but kills from Ged and Kessler bookended a 3-0 Lady Railsplitter run that tied the set at 12-12. With the Indians back in front 15-14, Lincoln Memorial stormed ahead for good with a 7-1 spurt fueled by two kills and a block from Gill. Back-to-back aces from Nartker ended the Lady Railsplitters' 25-17 win and drew the match level at one set apiece. 
 
A gritty come-from-behind effort helped the Lady Railsplitters claim a nail-biting 25-23 win in set three, which featured eight ties and five lead changes. Three straight kills gave Catawba another early lead with a 9-5 cushion. The visitors remained in control at 14-10 following an LMU error, but the Lady Railsplitters swung the momentum after that, scoring on seven of the next eight rallies to assume a 17-15 lead. 
 
The Indians answered and used back-to-back aces to pull ahead 21-18, but the Lady Railsplitters made the final push in the back-and-forth frame with a 6-1 run powered by two kills from Gill. Catawba cut the deficit to one late before Nartker finished off the thrilling victory with a kill. 
 
The fourth and final set was another grind that featured 10 ties and three lead changes, but the Lady Railsplitters used a late 5-0 run that was kick-started by back-to-back kills from Kessler to establish a commanding 23-18 lead. Kessler and Storms then connected on two final kills to close out the match with a 25-19 triumph. 
 
Lincoln Memorial hits the road this weekend for a pair of SAC matches, taking on Mars Hill on Friday before wrapping up the week against Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday.