Lehigh falls to American in straight sets on the road

Friday, October 4

Washington, D.C.

7:00 PM

Lehigh University

9-8

American

9-6

Lehigh

American

Photo by: Josh Liddick

Lehigh falls to American in straight sets on the road

10/4/2019 9:13:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

WASHINGTON — Looking for its fourth straight victory and third win of the Patriot League schedule, the Lehigh volleyball team fell a little bit short of achieving its goals on Friday night, falling to American, 3-0 at Bender Arena. With the loss, the Mountain Hawks fall to 9-8 overall, 2-1 in the Patriot League.

Lehigh struggled to gain distance in the first set, taking an early 1-0 lead before the Eagles started to find their rhythm. American got out to as much as an 18-10 lead before Lehigh took seven of the next 10 points. The Eagles ended up taking the first set by a score of 25-19. In the first, the Mountain Hawks hit .088 as a team with nine kills.

The Mountain Hawks had a difficult time putting together a rally in the second set despite getting out to a very early 2-1 lead. It was a back-and-forth set before Lehigh took a 5-4 lead after a Sarah Carman kill. American gained separation after a 6-6 tie with 10 out of 11 points in a row, taking a 16-7 lead. The Mountain Hawks ended up dropping the set, 25-12. Lehigh had eight kills as a team and hit .091.

Down 2-0, Lehigh had to dig deep to make a comeback on the Eagles on the road, but couldn't take a lead away from American. Trailing 21-13 in the third, Lehigh had its best run of the match, claiming three straight points with two Sabrina Lancaster kills to trail, 21-16. American took a 22-16 lead on another kill, but a Lancaster kill and Alina Lam service ace trimmed the deficit to 22-18. With a match point for the Eagles at 24-19, the Mountain Hawks battled hard to win four straight points capped off by a big Lancaster kill to trail 24-23. American won the final point to take the set, 25-23 and the match, 3-0.

Lancaster led the way for Lehigh with 17 kills with five digs. She hit .317 for the match and now has 198 kills on the season and now has four straight matches of double-digit kills.

Carman and Lam each added 12 assists, while Natalie Mavroidis led the team with 12 digs. Lauren Bright finished with four block assists, while both Emily Poole and Hannah Wright each tallied three.

Lehigh finished the match with a .101 attack percentage as a team with 30 kills on 99 attacks. The Mountain Hawks, however, out-blocked American 9-5 on the night.

The Mountain Hawks will look to regroup on Saturday when they face the Midshipmen of Navy in Annapolis at noon.

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