The Lincoln University women's volleyball team closed out the weekend at the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Roundup with a thrilling four set match against Claflin University. The Panthers however came away with a 3-1 win in the match, held at Big Ben's Home Court in Richmond, Virginia.
The set scores in the contest were the closest of any match Lincoln has played so far this season with the Panthers taking the first set 25-23 and the Lions rebounding to even the match at 1-1 with a 25-19 win in the second set. Claflin then closed out the match winning te next two sets with scores of 25-19 and 25-22. Lincoln's second set win was their first set win of the season.
Freshman
Amanda Lee (Brooklyn, N.Y./Park Slope Collegiate) led the Lions with a match-high 14 kills. Lee also added 19 digs on defense for her first career double-double.
Janae Stackhouse (Baltimore, Md./Baltimore PolyTech) and
Tierra Russaw (Westland , Mich./Summit Academy) had seven kills apiece. Russaw led the team on defense with 22 digs while
Tymera Crudup (Barnegat, N.J./Barnegat) added 20.
Kaylarose Scott (Brooklyn, N.Y./Hudson Catholic) had four blocks while
Kaiya Lewis (Woodhaven, N.Y./Queens Preparatory Academy) added three.
Alisa Foster (Philadelphia, Pa./Science Leadership Academy) led the team with 19 assists while
Tatyana Charles (Easton, Pa./Eastern Area) added 12.
Makaylen Crosby paced the Panthers with ten kills while Jamie Dobson and Jewel moody had nine apiece. Dobson also had five service aces. Five Claflin players reached double figures in digs with Kiana Ware and Jhi Piper-Murles leading the way with 15 apiece. Trinity Fierce added 12 while Angel Johnson and Vianca Colon-Gonzalez has ten apiece.
Neither Lincoln nor Claflin led by more than three points in the first set as the Panthers pulled away late, scoring three of the final four points to break a 22-all tie to take home the first set 25-23.
Claflin jumped out to an 11-5 lead in the second set before the Lions roared back with a 10-1 run to take a three point lead 15-12, taking advantage of several Panther errors to put points on the board. The Lions would not relinquish the lead the rest of the set; with a kill from Stackhouse increasing the margin to four and later two straight kills from Lee upping the score to 22-16. Russaw eventually closed it out with a set-winning kill making the final score 25-19.
The Lions trailed for the much of the early part of the third set before going on a 9-4 run to turn a one-point deficit into a four point lead 18-14. The Panthers then countered with eight straight points to retake the lead and then finished the set on an 11-1 spurt to win 25-19.
Claflin jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the fourth set before the Lions rallied to tie the game, scoring six of the next eight points and then added four of the next five to completed a 10-3 run to lead 12-9. The Panthers rallied to tie the set at 15-15 with three lead changes and five ties following until Lewis produced another tie at 22-22 with a kill. Claflin then closed out the match as Dobson recorded two kills and Colon Gonzalez sandwiching an ace between the two to give the Panthers a 25-22 win in the set and complete the 3-1 victory in the match.
Lincoln's next match will be Thursday, September 27, 2018 when they travel to bowie State University for a North division conference match. Tip off is at 6:00 p.m.
