MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. --- The Lees-McRae women's volleyball offense swung at a .310 clip or better in two sets and sophomore Avalon Liscio cranked out a match-high 14 kills while defeating Mount Olive, 25-18, 25-22, 18-25, 26-24 in Conference Carolinas action at Kornegay Arena Friday night in Mount Olive, N.C.
The Bobcats (16-8, 9-4 CC) climbed back into a tie for first in the North Division after a stunning Belmont Abbey loss to Pfeiffer shook up the standings. The Trojans (7-21, 3-10) had a trio of players with at least 11 kills.
LMC used a 5-0 run, fueled by two Allyson Schillinger (Spring Hill, Fla.) service aces to take a 15-9 lead in the opening set.
UMO responded with a 4-0 run to shave the deficit to two, but junior Jariliz Cotté (Bayamon, Puerto Rico) delivered two kills and an ace to stretch the lead back to five, 18-13.
Liscio (Naples, Fla.) and Cotté stuffed a Sarah Watkins before a pair of UMO attack errors capped off the opening set.
Junior Jordan Banta (Virginia Beach, Va.) connected on a kill to make it 14-10 in a tightly-contested second set.
The Trojans cut the deficit to one on four occasion, but coach Dave Schmidlin's squad had a response each time.
A trio of Bobcats smashed a kill each to help seal the second set.
LMC hit a match-best .375.
UMO led wire-to-wire in the third and used a Sarah Robertson kill to push the lead to its largest (seven), 24-17.
Banta and freshman Siarra Walker (Winston-Salem, N.C.) combined for a block to cut the disadvantage to six, but UMO's Britni Johnson delivered a kill to end the set.
LMC took advantage of sloppy Trojan offense to climb out to a six-point lead, 17-11.
However, UMO rallied back with a 12-6 lead to tie it at 23.
The Bobcats claimed the final two points following an UMO service error and block from Liscio and Walker.
Freshman Madison Martin (Goldsboro, N.C.) and Cotté recorded 11 digs each while Schillinger paved the way with 16 assists.
LMC travels to Barton Saturday at 2 p.m. for a CC battle in Wilson, N.C.
- LMC -
