LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, Pa. – The Lady Lions defeated Elizabeth City State University in straight sets on Sunday, October 18
th in Manuel Rivero Hall led by
Mariah Russell (St. Louis, MO/Maplewood Richmond Heights HS)'s team-high ten kills.
Lincoln won the first set 27-25 paced by
Mariah Russell (St. Louis, MO/Maplewood Richmond Heights HS) and
Jillian Lee (Baltimore, MD/Baltimore Poly Institute). Both Lady Lions had four early kills while the Vikings struggled with eight team errors.
Sydney Cook (Portland, OR/Cleveland HS) carried the defense with six digs and
Keldesha Spencer (Nassau, Bahamas/Kingsway Academy) had a solo block.
In the second set Lincoln shut down the ECSU attack with 27 digs.
Kyra Orton (Detroit, MI/Renaissance HS) paced the Lady Lions with eight digs. Cook added six digs while the LU offense contributed nine team kills. Russell and Hugget both had three kills in that set as Lincoln won 25-12.
With the 2-0 advantage, Lincoln closed the match with a balanced attack.
Toni Smith (New Castle, DE/William Penn HS) exploded in the third set with six kills. ECSU had a difficult time garnering points with seven errors and fell in the final set 25-15. The Lady Lions issued ECSU a season series sweep for the first time in school history during the 2015 season. LU won on the road 3-0 and again at home 3-0.
Mariah Russell (St. Louis, MO/Maplewood Richmond Heights HS) finished with a team-high ten kills, six digs, and a service ace. This was her fourth time this season recording ten or more kills in a match.
Toni Smith (New Castle, DE/William Penn HS) matched her season-high of nine kills while both
Jillian Lee (Baltimore, MD/Baltimore Poly Institute) and
Soyini Hugget (Bear, DE/Delaware Tech CC) both tallied six kills. Lee pitched in with two solo blocks and Hugget collected eight digs.
Shanna King (Newark, NJ/University High School) paced LU with 23 assists and nine digs. Defensively
Sydney Cook (Portland, OR/Cleveland HS) had 18 digs and
Kyra Orton (Detroit, MI/Renaissance HS) followed with 12 digs.
With this victory Lincoln moves to 5-7 overall and 4-5 in CIAA play. The Vikings drop to 1-11 overall and 1-8 in CIAA play. The Lady Lions will honor five seniors in their final home game on Monday, October 19
th at 6 p.m. against Chowan University.