Volleyball Sweeps Queens

MARS HILL, N.C. - The Mars Hill volleyball team swept Queens on Saturday afternoon in Stanford Arena, defeating the Royals 25-10, 28-26 and 25-14. The Lions improve to 4-9 on the season and 3-3 in South Atlantic Conference play while Queens falls to 4-10 and 1-5 in the league.

Lauren Hochstetler led the Lion attack with 10 kills, followed by Rebecca Butler with nine and Devon Felts with four. Mary Kate Griffin had five aces, with Victoria Kaiser converting a pair of aces. The Lions hit a season-high .244 for the match and a season-set high of .400 in the opening set. Christen Nicholson led the Lions with seven digs, with Kaiser and Lindsay Austin each with six digs.

Katie Schoenrock led the Royals with 11 kills, followed by Meredith Jones and Elizabeth Bialkowski with six kills each. Amanda Karan had a team-leading eight digs, followed by Schoenrock with seven.

The Lions stormed out to an 11-2 lead in the first set and led by no fewer than 10 points the rest of the set en route to an early advantage in the match.

In the second set Queens enjoyed a 21-10 advantage before a Bialkowski service error began the Lion comeback. With Kaiser serving, the Lions scored five straight points to cut the Royals lead to 21-16 and prompting a timeout. Mars Hill would tie the set at 23 following a Queens attack error. Consecutive kills by Griffin and Butler broke a 26-all tie, handing the set to Mars Hill.

Tied at six in the third set, the Lions went on a 4-0 to take a 10-6 lead. Queens cut the Lion advantage to two, 11-9, but got no closer the rest of the way.

Mars Hill continues their five-match homestand on Friday, welcoming Lenoir-Rhyne at 7 p.m.