The Lincoln University women's volleyball team won their first match of the season Wednesday night, defeating area rival Cheyney University 3-1 in a "Battle of the First" match held at Cope Hall in Cheyney, Pennsylvania.
 
The Lions won the first set 25-22 before the Wolves tied the match with a 25-22 second set win.  Lincoln then won the next two sets 25-21 and 25-13 to take the match.  The win snaps a five game road losing streak by the Lions against the Wolves .  The Lions improve to 1-1 while Cheyney falls to 0-2.
 
Senior Mariah Russell (St Louis Mo./Maplewood Richmond Heights) recorded a career-high 18 kills while hitting .306 (18 kills/7 errors/36 attack attempts).  Junior Aubury Coleman (Mason City, Iowa/ Mason City) added nine kills while hitting .227 (9/4/22).  Freshman Alisa Foster (Philadelphia, Pa./Science Leadership Acad.) had 28 assists setting up the Lion offense and added six service aces. Sophomore Tierra Russaw (Westland, Mich./Summit Academy) had five aces while freshman Janiyah Gillard (Long Branch, N.J./Long Branch) added four. 
 
On the defensive side, Russaw led all players with 11 digs while freshman Tymera Crudup (Barnegat, N.J./Barnegat)  and Foster notching ten and eight respectively. Russaw also led the team with two blocks.
 
Neither team led by more than four points throughout the first half with six of the eight ties in the set coming in the early stages of the match.  A service error by Cheyney followed by Russaw serving two consecutive aces gave the Lions their first lead of the night 10-7.  Cheyney rallied to tie the set at 12-12 before the Lions went on a 5-1 run to boost the lead to 17-13.  Lincoln still led by four 19-15 when the Wolves rallied with a 7-3 run to tie the game again at 22-all.  The Lions then scored the next the points to take the set and lead 1-0 in the match.
 
The Lions led throughout the second set and were ahead by as many as six points late in the set when the Wolves rallied to tie things up  at 21-21 before scoring four of the next five points to win 25-22 and even the match at 1-1.
 
Gillard served six straight points midway through the third set to turn a one point lead into a seven point 15-8 advantage.  Three of those six points came on service aces and the other three on Cheyney attack errors.  The Wolves countered with five straight points to again close within one 15-14 and later tied things up at 17-17.  With the score still tied at 21-21 Coleman's kill started Lincoln's final rally (four straight points) to win the set 25-21.  Russaw had the set winner with a kill.
 
 Coleman and Russell combined for ten kills in a dominant fourth and final set as the Lions scored the first five points and never looked back enroute to a 25-13 set win to give Lincoln the 3-1 win in the match.  The Lions finished the set with 12 total kills with just one error in 22 attack attempts (.500 attack% for the set).
 
For the match the Lions had 35 kills and had an attack% of .227 (35/15/869) while Cheyney notched 30 kills and had an attack% of -.009 (30/31/107). Both teams had 15 aces and the Lions held a 43-34 advantage in digs and a 4-2 advantage in team blocks.
 
The women's volleyball team returns to action over the weekend when they travel to Winston-Salem State University who will be hosting one of the CIAA round-ups over the weekend.  Lincoln will face Shaw University, St. Augustine's University and host Winston-Salem over the weekend.