HICKORY, N.C. – The Lady Railsplitters suffered their third loss in four matches on Saturday afternoon with a 3-0 setback at Lenoir-Rhyne inside of Shuford Gymnasium. Lincoln Memorial (8-5, 4-3 SAC) dropped its third straight decision to the Bears (12-3, 6-2 SAC), who pushed their winning streak to five by scores of 25-21, 25-20 and 25-19. 
 
After winning its first three South Atlantic Conference matches of the season, Lincoln Memorial has now lost three of its last four to fall into fifth place in the league standings. 
 
Rylee Storms was stellar for the Lady Railsplitters once again, following up her career-high 18-kill effort on Friday night with a team-high 15 kills to go with seven digs. She was, however, the only LMU player with more than seven kills in the match. Freshman Emma Flowers had seven in her return from a three-match absence, while Lindsey Nartker and Alicia Kessler had five apiece. Tone Gill and Danielle Ged had four apiece. 
 
Lenoir-Rhyne finished with a narrow 44-43 edge in kills, but the Bears committed only nine errors while hitting .312. By comparison, the Lady Railsplitters had 23 errors and a .155 hitting percentage. 
 
Erica Whiteaker led all players with 15 digs, while Emily Walter had 33 assists and seven digs. 
 
Angelica Arroyo had 13 kills to lead Lenoir-Rhyne, while Taylor Prall chipped in 10 on a .320 attack percentage. Hannah Houston and Madison Asher had seven kills apiece. Helen Hamilton posted 36 assists and seven digs, while Ashley Hawkins led the team with 14 digs. 
 
Ten attack errors cost the Lady Railsplitters dearly in the opening set as the Bears drew first blood with a 25-21 victory. The score was tied at 8-8 until L-R used two kills and three LMU attack errors to pull ahead 15-10. Lincoln Memorial fought back to tie it at 16-16 on a kill from Storms, but the Bears took the lead for good following two more LMU miscues and a kill by Prall. Arroyo later finished off Lenoir-Rhyne's set-one win with her fifth kill of the frame. 
 
The Bears dominated offensively in the second set, racking up 17 kills on a .385 attack percentage, and withstood a late LMU rally to take a 2-0 lead with a 25-20 victory. A kill from Denny put L-R in complete control with a 20-12 lead, but the Lady Railsplitters plugged away and cut the deficit to 21-19 on a kill from Ged. However, L-R never let it get closer than that and used an error and a kill to get enough breathing room, while Cloninger later wrapped it up with a kill. 
 
An early 5-0 run helped the Bears establish a 10-6 lead in the third frame, but the Lady Railsplitters answered and actually held leads at 12-11 and 17-16. But that's as good as it would get for Lincoln Memorial, as L-R rattled off 7-0 unanswered points late, five of which came off miscues, to take a commanding 23-17 lead. The Lady Railsplitters scored just two more points after that, while Prall completed the 25-19 clincher with her 10th kill. 
 
The Bears improved to 16-12 in the all-time series with the victory and defeated Lincoln Memorial for the 10th time in the last 12 tries. 
 
The Lady Railsplitters are back in action on Friday, October 5 when they return to Mary Mars Gymnasium, where they are a perfect 7-0 this season, to face Coker in SAC action. First serve is set for 7 p.m.