Lehigh competes to the very end, falls to American in five sets

Tuesday, October 9

Bethlehem, Pa.

7 p.m.

Lehigh University

16-3, 5-2PL

American

12-9, 7-0PL

American

Lehigh

Photo by: Hunter Julius

Lehigh competes to the very end, falls to American in five sets

10/9/2018 10:51:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — It looked as if the Mountain Hawks were going to take the momentum gathered in the first two sets and utilize it in the third, but the comeback was on for American, taking the last three sets, 25-22, 25-21 and 15-10 to win the match 3-2.

With the defeat, Lehigh fell to 16-3 on the season, 5-2 in Patriot League play, but the loss wasn't all negatives, as the Mountain Hawks held their own especially in the first two sets, hitting .238 and .303 as a team. American came out strong and ended up being a little too tough to manage in the latter sets.

"I think ultimately coming out and winning the first two sets, I think we were prepared initially for a battle," said head coach Alexa Keckler. "And I think when we ran the table the first two, we owned the tempo a little bit more, we got complacent and were surprised we were in that situation."

"American made some really good adjustments after that second set and I don't think we did a great job of executing our offense as well as we needed to beat a team as strong as they were."

The defense is something that Keckler said was a bright spot for the Mountain Hawks up against a tough Eagle attack, as junior Emily Poole once again led the way with seven blocks, sophomore Hannah Wright added five and juniors Julia Pressly and Lauren Bright, along with sophomore Sabrina Lancaster each tallied one.

For freshman setter Alina Lam (26) and senior libero Emily Develle (24), the two combined for 50 of the Mountain Hawks' 84 digs on the night. Develle inched closer to Lehigh's all-time lead in digs, now needing 127 to break the record. Lam added a career-high matching 46 assists on her night.

Pressly and Wright both notched 15 kills, while Lancaster finished with 12 and 10 digs for a double-double.

For American, there were a ton of key contributors, mainly Aleksandra Kazala, who finished with 20 kills and 19 digs, as well as Kennedy Etheridge, who tallied 54 assists to go along with her 15 digs. Megan Crush registered 21 digs, while libero Kristen Largay finished with 22 digs.

For the night, the Eagles hit .214, while the Mountain Hawks combined for a .171 hitting percentage.

Lehigh is ultimately going to use what was learned from the matchup against American on Tuesday night and apply it for another challenging opponent in Colgate on Friday. It's all about the next opponent and how the team can get better and more consistent for Keckler and her coaching staff.

"We need to learn from tonight, we've got to learn about some things that we could've done a little bit better from our offensive flow to our blocking and how we can fix a few of those things," said Keckler. "But now we just need to move on, there's really no time to waste on the negatives and tackle the gameplan for Colgate."

Lehigh's match with Colgate on Friday in Hamilton, N.Y. will be at 7 p.m. and will be streamed live on the Patriot League Network.

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