AIKEN, S.C. --- The Lees-McRae women's volleyball team suffered a pair of losses at the opening day of the USC-Aiken Invitational at the Convocation Center in Aiken, S.C. Friday.
Newberry 3, Lees-McRae 0
The Wolves (4-1) had a quartet of players with at least five kills while defeating the Bobcats (3-3) 25-17, 25-22, 26-24.
Junior Jariliz Cotté (Bayamon, Puerto Rico) paced LMC with 11 kills while freshman Taylor Hicks (Blountville, Tenn.) impressed with 13 digs.
Newberry sprinted out to an 18-7 lead in the opening set after Rachel Moran delivered a pair of service aces.
LMC would shave the deficit to five, 22-17, following a kill and block assist from sophomore Avalon Liscio (Naples, Fla.).
The Wolves would claim the next three points to claim the opener.
The second set was a back-and-forth battle while Newberry held a slim 16-14 lead before using a 5-1 spurt to stretch its lead to six, 21-15.
Coach Dave Schmidlin's squad would rally back with a 6-0 run of its own after freshman Courtney Weathersbee (Raleigh, N.C.) cranked out a pair of aces.
Once again, Newberry clamped down and finished the set on a 4-1 run.
Much like the second set, neither team could distance themselves while a Liscio kill created a 19-all tie. There were nine ties in the set.
The Bobcats would stave off match point after the duo of Jordan Banta (Virginia Beach, Va.) and Siarra Walker (Winston-Salem, N.C.) impressed with their second block in three points.
The Wolves' Lauren Prachar tallied a kill before an LMC attack error concluded play.
The Bobcats held Newberry to a -.045 clip in the final set.
Palm Beach Atlantic 3, Lees-McRae 0
Cotté led the offensive charge again with 18 kills while junior Allyson Schillinger (Spring Hill, Fla.) amassed 34 assists and freshman Madison Martin (Goldsboro, N.C.) had 12 digs.
The Sailfish (7-0) led wire-to-wire in the first set, sparked by a 5-0 run to push its lead to 16-8 following a pair of kills from Katie Ballantyne, 25-17.
Ana Rodríguez (Caguas, Puerto Rico) delivered an ace to cut the deficit to three, but Ballantyne notched two more kills to give PBA the first set.
Both offenses were unstoppable in the second while PBA hit .594 and LMC nearly matched it with a .410 mark.
Banta blasted a kill to knot it at 15, but a PBA 10-5 run would prove detrimental as the Sailfish took the second set, 25-20.
Liscio and Banta tallied consecutive kills to make 20-20 in the final set. PBA responded with a 5-1 run and a pair of blocks from Sarah Ragland and Stephany Brown to swipe the final set, 25-21.
LMC battles Francis Marion at 10 a.m. before concluding weekend play with Anderson (S.C.) at 2 p.m. in Aiken S.C. Saturday.
- LMC -
