Montgomery, Ala. - The Lady Eagles hosted Blue Mountain Saturday afternoon for back-to-back SSAC play. Faulkner found themselves down 2-0 in the match. They fought back in the third to push the game to at least one more set. In the fourth set, Faulkner held the lead for most of the set until the Toppers battled back late to pick up the 3-1 win.
Blue Mountain 3, Faulkner 1 (25-15, 25-21, 23-25, 25-20)
For the first two sets, the Lady Eagles fought hard, but the attackers of Blue Mountain and a few errors from the Lady Eagles had Faulkner down 2-0 in the match. Blue Mountain hit at a .444 percent clip in the first set with 17 total kills.
In the third set, the Lady Eagles and Toppers came out swinging. They traded several points until Blue Mountain took the biggest lead of the set. The Toppers led the Lady Eagles 12-9.
The Lady Eagles quickly tied it up 12 even with a pair of kills from Allyse Rudolph and Rhiannon Keck. The third point came from an attack error from Blue Mountain.
The two teams continued to exchange points for the next several sets. Late in the set, the Lady Eagles took their biggest lead up 22-20. The Toppers drew within one after a kill from Katie Rutland. Faulkner put down one more point after a kill from Charlee Jordan.
On the next four serves, each team scored, with Faulkner taking the set 25-23 in the last serve behind another kill from Jordan to send the match to at least one more set.
In the fourth set, the two teams battled back and forth.
Late in the set, Faulkner finally hit a run of points after scoring five straight to lead the Toppers 18-13. Blue Mountain worked their way back within one on the next few serves to trail the Lady Eagles 19-18. Faulkner scored one more point to lead the Toppers 20-18, but Blue Mountain would take the set and the match after seven straight points. The Toppers won the set 25-20 and the match 3-1 over the Lady Eagles.
Allyse Rudolph led the way in kills for the Lady Eagles in back-to-back matches. Rudolph had 13 kills and eight digs. Rhiannon Keck had 12 kills. Three Lady Eagles had double digits in digs. Hannah Bryan led with 15. Mandi Hart had 14 and Ashton McCullar had 13. Hart also led the team in assists with 31. Ellie Cyr had 14 of her own.
The Lady Eagles return to action for another home gain on Friday, October 4, when they host SSAC member Mobile. The first serve is set for 6 p.m.
