LEBANON, Tenn. - For the third time this season, the Freed-Hardeman Lady Lions split a pair of matches as they lost to Cumberland (Tenn.), 3-1, before sweeping Reinhardt (Ga.) at the Cumberland Classic on Friday afternoon.

Host Cumberland pulled away late in each of the first two sets, turning a 21-21 tie into a 25-22 win and a 20-20 tie into a 25-23 win. FHU took the third set 25-22, holding a four-point lead for much of the set, but the Bulldogs closed the match out in the fourth set after overcoming a three-point deficit to win 25-16 as they took points on 11 of the final 13 rallies.

Allie Moss posted 19 kills and barely missed a double-double with nine digs, while Kara England set a new career-high with 14 kills. Michelle Bennett and Rachel Jetton led the back-row defense with 18 and 10 digs respectively.

The Lady Lions (3-3) bounced back to make relatively quick work of Reinhardt, winning the first two sets 25-17 before finishing the sweep with a 26-24 win in set three.

FHU turned a tight first set into a comfortable lead as they ran off eight straight points, four of which came from Mikaela Powers off of a kill and three aces. The Lady Lions again took control at the end of the second set as they took seven of the final eight points. Powers again made a difference with her service, getting aces on three of the final four points.

Freed-Hardeman took a big lead in the third set at 21-14, but the Eagles stayed in it as they rolled off six straight points to take a 24-23 lead. Emily Humphry got a dump kill to tie it up, and Powers had a solo block to get to match point where an attack error by Mary Ruth Wheeler sealed the win for FHU.

Moss again paced the Lady Lion attack with 15 kills while Powers had eight aces. Bennett recorded 17 digs and four aces, bringing her season total to 19 in six matches.

Freed-Hardeman faces Ohio Valley (W.V.) College tomorrow at 9:00 AM and Fisk (Tenn.) at 1:00 PM.

NOTES: Powers' eight aces against Reinhardt were more than she had all of last year (seven)...The FHU record for most aces in a match is 11, set by Renata Pedreira on Sept. 15, 2005, against Martin Methodist (Tenn.)...Bennett entered the day leading the NAIA in aces per set at 0.92, and increased that slightly today bringing it up to 0.95 per set.

QUOTES: "We made too many mistakes in our first match today. I felt if we played half as well as our second match we could have easily gone 2-0 today. We played a complete match against Reinhardt with very few mistakes and some big plays at the right time to seal the win." - Head Coach Todd Humphry.