CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Another challenging night offensively for the Lincoln Memorial University women's volleyball team led to a second-straight 3-0 South Atlantic Conference road setback Friday at Queens University of Charlotte. Despite holding the host Royals (3-1, 3-1 SAC) to an attack percentage under .200, the visiting Lady Railsplitters (1-3, 1-3 SAC) were unable to score more than 19 points in any set inside Curry Arena.
 
Limited to 21 kills off a -.025 attack, LMU committed 24 attack errors and could not overcome Queens' 38 kills across the three sets. Swinging at a .194 clip for the night, the Royals laid down 31 combined kills in the second and third sets and made eight total team blocks. Queens also got six points off its serve with aces and made just 14 errors on its attack.
 
Both teams were inefficient on offense in the opening set, combining for only 13 kills as the Lady Railsplitters hit -.135 and the Royals .121. Following a Royal attack error, junior opposite Gabriela Abreu notched her first kill of the night to give LMU an early 5-3 lead. However, Queens quickly took control of the set by going on a 16-3 run to build an 19-8 advantage. After a strand of three Lady Railsplitter points, the Royals closed out the set at 25-13 on a 6-2 run.
 
The second set proved to be much tighter with LMU tallying nine kills on a .048 attack and Queens 16 kills off a .204 attack. Much like the first set, the Lady Railsplitters went up 4-2 early after a pair of Royal errors. Winning seven of the next 10 points Queens pulled in front, before a 5-1 LMU run capped with a kill from freshman outside hitter Haley Brown gave the Lady Railsplitters a 12-10 lead. The Royals would go on a 5-1 run of their own to retake the lead at 15-13 but an Abreu service ace knotted things up at 16. From there, LMU was outscored 9-3 as Queens took a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-19 set win.
 
Held to a .000 attack with only six kills in the third set, the Lady Railsplitters had no answer for the Royals' 15 kills on a .238 attack. Queens took the first three points of the set and remained in front for the entirety of the stanza. A kill by senior middle blocker Yileen Ng He capped a 4-1 run and kept LMU within two at 11-9. However, the Royals preceded to go on an 8-1 run to take a commanding 19-10 lead. Trailing 21-14, a kill by freshman middle blocker Richlyn Ross would be the Lady Railsplitters' final point of the night as Queens ended the match on a 4-1 run.
 
Abreu, Brown and Ross all finished with six kills apiece while Ng He collected a trio of blocks, freshman setter Finley Sims handed out a team-high nine assists and senior libero Sarah Jones recorded 15 digs. Sophomore defensive specialist Karlie Bowlin posted a career-high 13 digs and junior setter Emily Walter had a near double-double of 11 digs and eight assists.
 
Casey Tarvin led the Royals with a double-double of 10 kills and 16 digs and Queens got a match-high four blocks from Lindsay Elmore and 29 assists from Brooke Farley.
 
Up Next…
LMU will have a week off from match action before returning to the court next Friday night at Mars Hill. Continuing their three-week road swing, first serve of the Lady Railsplitters' tilt with the Lions is slated for 7 p.m. in North Carolina.
 
How to Follow
Stay tuned to LMURailsplitters.com, as well as LMU's social media platforms - @LMURailsplitter on Twitter, @LMURailsplitters on Facebook and @lmurailsplitters on Instagram, for complete coverage of Lady Railsplitter volleyball throughout the 2020-21 season.