Lenoir-Rhyne Defeats Volleyball
L-R won 3-1 over Mars Hill on Tuesday
HICKORY, N.C.- The Mars Hill volleyball team lost to Lenoir-Rhyne 3-1 in a South Atlantic Conference match in Shuford Memorial Gymnasium on Tuesday. Lenoir-Rhyne won by scores of 25-21, 15-25, 25-15 and 25-8. Lenoir-Rhyne improves to 10-5 overall and 9-2 in the South Atlantic Conference while Mars Hill drops to 4-13 and 2-8.
Mary Kate Griffin had a match-high 13 kills, followed by Rebecca Butler with nine kills and Maddie Spurgeon with eight kills. Lauren Hochstetler had 13 digs, followed by Victoria Kaiser with 12 digs and Butler with 11 digs. Sara Fahrenbrook led Mars Hill with 32 assists and three service aces.
Lenoir-Rhyne was led by Morgan Bunker with 12 kills and Brooke Redmond with 11 kills. Redmond led the Bears with 17 digs. Bailey Cloninger had 16 digs, followed by Briana Gottberg with 10.
With the first set tied at 14, Lenoir-Rhyne went on a 5-1 run for a 19-15 lead. Consecutive kills by Griffin and Spurgeon got Mars Hill to within three (21-18) before consecutive kills gave the hosts a 24-19 lead. MHU would pull to within three before a Bunker kill ended the set.
Mars Hill jumped out to a 13-5 lead in the second set before the Bears trimmed the Lion advantage to 15-10. Lenoir-Rhyne would cut the Lion lead to 18-15 before Mars Hill closed out the set with a 7-0 run for a 25-15 victory.
The Bears held an 11-5 lead in the third set following a Lion attack error before MHU cut the deficit to 11-8. Mars Hill would twice pull to within two points, 12-10 and 13-11, before L-R went on a 5-1 run for an 18-12 lead. The Lions would get no closer than five points for the remainder of the set.
Lenoir-Rhyne opened the fourth set on a 9-1 run en route to a match-clinching 25-8 victory.
Mars Hill returns to Stanford Arena on Friday, hosting Coker at 7 p.m.
