Harrogate, TN – A day removed from battling the Bulldogs in North Carolina, Lincoln Memorial made the quick trip into the Palmetto state, this time to face the Cobras from Coker University. The Cobras were coming in off a victory last night over Carson-Newman and looked to continue their streak but the Lady Railsplitters came in with a purpose and came away with the weekend split after defeating the Cobras in four sets, 25-19, 25-16, 20-25, 26-24.
The Lady Railsplitters got the scoring started in set one off a kill by
Sarah Robbins that got LMU out to a quick 6-3 start. A 9-2 run in the middle of the set, built some breathing room and LMU would pull away 25-19 behind a 14 team kill performance that saw LMU have a .290 attack percentage.
Now with some momentum, LMU would open set two in a back-and-forth effort that saw the two teams trade points until the Lady Railsplitters would go on a four to nothing run extending their lead to 16-10 highlighted by back-to-back service aces by Kaityln Johnson. After two points by the Cobras, the Lady Railsplitters would use an attack error to start a nine to four run to end the set 25-16. LMU hit a match high .400 attack percentage in set two.
Coker would come back in set three quickly and worked their way to a 12-7 lead. The Lady Railsplitters would battle back, tying the set at 15 but set three was the a combination of LMU's worst hitting set (.121) and Coker's best hitting set of the match (.282) and the Cobras would extend the match to the fourth.
Coker started the fourth set off with a kill by Cayla Gilmore but Annabelle Clair came back with a kill of her own to set the tone for a tough set for each team. Johnson put LMU on top, four to three with a kill off the assist of
Lauren Jacob and the Lady Railsplitters would lead from there but it wouldn't be without drama. A
Georgia Dobson kill set up match point for LMU but three errors brought Coker back to 24-24. A
Lauren Pickett kill and a service ace by
Milyn Minor would be the final nail and LMU took set four 26-24 to win the match.
Johnson finished the day with a double double, 18 kills and 10 digs. Pickett led the team with 43 assists while Jacob added a team high 17 digs. The Lady Railsplitters held Coker to an attack percentage of .218. As a team, LMU outpaced Coker with 13 aces compared to the Cobras 6, but it was Coker's block defense on the net outscoring 11-7.
With the win, LMU moves to 7-6 overall and 5-4 in South Atlantic Conference play while Coker falls to 7-6 overall but 2-5 in SAC play. The Lady Railsplitters will now return home and take the week to prepare for a SAC home weekend starting on Friday when they host Newberry.
