LAKELAND, Fla.—Southeastern totaled 73 digs and nine blocks in a four-set win over Ave Maria at The Furnace on Wednesday.
The Fire stretched their win streak to three with a 25-13, 20-25, 25-21, 25-21 win over the Gyrenes to move to 13-3 overall and 5-1 in Sun Conference play.
It was the offense that paced Southeastern in the first set with 15 kills on 27 attempts and a .481 attacking percentage. A 5-0 run with three aces by
Grace Petty, two coming on rotation errors helped give the Fire some breathing room and take a 17-9 advantage. Two of
Tatyana Lyons nine kills came in the final three points of the set.
The second set saw the Fire record just nine kills and eight attack errors and had to dig out of a 6-1 deficit early on.
In the third, Southeastern jumped out to an 8-1 advantage, creating a tough time for the Ave Maria (8-11, 3-5) hitters. The Fire had 11 kills in the third set and but forced 12 attacking errors, and had a block and an ace to take the set.
The Fire had 25 digs as a team in the fourth set alone and had four blocks in the set. The Gyrenes had an 8-3 lead early on but a 5-0 run got the Fire within a point at 9-8, getting two more aces from Lyons and a block from
Emilia Harding. Trailing 15-14, the Fire ripped off four straight points with kills by
Cambry Pope and Lyons sandwiching blocks by Lyons, who was also assisted on another by Pope.
Pope led the offense with 13 kills and was in on two blocks. Petty added 10 kills with four aces.
Alexandra Postlethwaite assisted on 48 of SEU's 50 kills.
Five players were in double figures in digs with
Brooke Henry leading all players with 17. Petty and Postlethwaite had 12 each and
Chapel Cunningham and Pope had 11 each.
Harding was in on four blocks with two solos. Lyons was also part of four blocks and had two solos.
The Fire will travel to Florida Memorial on Saturday for their next game.
