Butler, Spurgeon lead Lions to fourth straight win

MARS HILL, N.C. - The Mars Hill volleyball team won its fourth straight contest in four sets (20-25, 25-19, 25-22, 25-16) against Lenoir-Rhyne Tuesday evening in Stanford Arena. Rebecca Butler and Maddie Spurgeon led the Lions with 13 kills each.

Lenoir-Rhyne rattled the Lions late in the first set. After both teams traded points back and forth for the duration of the set, the Bears pulled ahead 17-16 and won 8 of the next 10 points to claim the first set. Brooke Redmond had a set-high six kills to give the Bears the early advantage.

Mars Hill battled back in the second frame with Butler knocking down six kills on nine attempts and adding eight digs. Lauren Hochstetler had 10 digs and two kills.

The Lions continued to claw towards victory, taking a 2-1 lead after the third. Mars Hill jumped out to a 14-7 lead and never looked back. Hochstetler led the Lions with five kills in the stanza, followed by Maddie Spurgeon's four. Butler had a game-high 12 digs in the set and finished with 26 on the night to lead all players.

After dropping the first point in the second set, Mars Hill would not trail until the fourth set when the Bears were up 3-2 early on.

Mars Hill closed out the contest convincingly in the fourth set, 25-16. Building up a six point, 12-6 lead midway through the set, the Bears drew close taking seven of the next 10 points. Following a timeout from Mars Hill, the Lions went on to win 10 of the next 13 points with Hochstetler ending the game on her 10^th kill of the night.

Redmond and Taylor Prall paced the Bears' offense with 17 and 16 kills, respectively. Maggie Bogart led all players with 30 assists and chipped in 21 digs. Ashley Markland dug a team-high 25 balls for Lenoir-Rhyne.

Sarah Pasour led the Lions with 27 assists and added nine digs. Elizabeth Kaeser had 25 digs, nine kills, two aces and one block for a well-rounded performance. Ully Martins dug 23 balls for the Lions.

Before the game, Butler and Hochstetler were presented with gold volleyballs to recognize their milestones of reaching 1,000 career kills earlier in the season.

Mars Hill improves to 11-15 (9-10 SAC) and moves into sixth place in the conference while the Bears drop to 10-14 (6-12 SAC). The win gives the Lions a season-high four-game winning streak and most wins since 2013.

The Lions conclude regular season play against SAC leading Anderson on Saturday, November 11 at 2 p.m. Mars Hill will honor the four senior players prior to first serve.