COLUMBUS, Miss. — The Freed-Hardeman University Lady Lion volleyball team escaped from Mississippi with a 3-2 (17-25, 25-23, 25-21, 21-25, 15-7) victory over the Mississippi University for Women Owls.
The opening set began close, but the Lady Lions (4-2) found themselves on the wrong end of a 6-0 run that ended with a big kill from
Hope Breen. A kill from
Morgan Jackson later in the set narrowed the deficit to 18-12, but the Owls were able to eke out the final points to win the first set 25-17.
Shaking off any rust, the Lady Lions went from a five-kill first set to a 15-kill second set to level the match. Freed-Hardeman and MUW (0-4) stayed within two points of each other until
Marija Milic took to the service line to anchor what began as a 14-14 tie and ended with FHU leading 18-14. That push helped FHU as the teams swapped services until
Avery Young's kill knotted the match with a 25-23 set win.
The closest set was the middle set with the Lady Lions and the Owls tying the score 10 different times while swapping leads four times. FHU was down 17-15 before kills from
Avery Young,
Becca Heineman, and
Audrey Satterfield gave FHU a lead they would not relinquish until the 25-21 victory.
Forcing a decisive fifth set, The W turned a 14-14 tie in the fourth into a 22-15 lead. The Lady Lions mounded a massive comeback to make the score 22-20, but the Owls secured the final three points to win the fourth set 25-21.
In the final set, kills from three different Lady Lions helped FHU reach eight points first to lead 8-4. A service ace from
Autumn Howard put a cherry on the top of a 15-7 victorious set and a 3-2 match.
Avery Young led the charge with a double-double by securing 14 kills and 11 digs.
Hope Breen closely followed with 13 kills. The setting tandem of
Becca Heineman and
Alyssa Austin combined for 39 assists with Heineman tallying 21 and Austin 18.
