PITTSBURGH, Pa. (Aug. 27, 2010) –  The Saint Francis women's volleyball team rallied early, but were unable to overcome the hot-hitting Lehigh Mountain Hawks, falling 1-3 (14-25, 25-23, 21-25, 17-25) at the Courtyard at Marriott tournament hosted by Duquesne at the A.J. Palumbo Center.

The loss dropped the Red Flash to 0-2 this season, as they were swept in their first day of competition in 2010.  They will take on Youngstown State in Loretto on Tuesday, Aug. 31.

The first set began mostly with trading of points, but a Lehigh kill and a Red Flash dig error led to the Mountain Hawks building to a 7-5 lead.  Lehigh kept the pressure on, nicely digging a Kierstin Kiser (Clarion, Pa./Clarion) (Clarion, Pa./Clarion) dump attempt and turning that into a kill, putting them up 10-6.  The serve-receive of the Red Flash struggled, and when a reception turned into a free ball for the Mountain Hawks (which was put away for a kill), Coach Mullen called timeout with his team trailing 12-7.

The Mountain Hawks show tremendous pressure after the time-out, pushing the score to 18-10 before the two teams exchanged service errors.  The Red Flash had trouble keeping the ball in-bounds, though, and the Mountain Hawks were able to keep them at arm's length.  The Lehigh lead ballooned to 10 points as the Mountain Hawks led 23-13.  The Mountain Hawks would go on to take the set 25-15.

The Red Flash would not let the second set get away as the first did, though.  The two teams mostly traded points, with Danielle Reese (Port Matilda, Pa./Bald Eagle Area) (Port Matilda, Pa./Bald Eagle) notching two kills early in the match to keep the Red Flash within one point.  At 7-6, a setting error gave a point to Lehigh, which they quickly relinquished with a service error.  The Red Flash would eventually get their first lead of the set when a Lehigh attacking error put SFU up 10-9.

After a Lehigh timeout, the Red Flash seemingly turned the corner, two more points to take the 12-9 lead.  They were sparked in part by Lauren Wingard (York, Pa./Dallastown Area) (York, Pa./Dallastown), who combined with Lindsay Malloy (Gallitzin, Pa./Penn Cambria) (Gallitzin, Pa./Penn Cambria) for a block and also added a kill.  Lehigh would bounce back, though, going on a 9-3 run to make the score 18-15 in favor of the Mountain Hawks.

The Red Flash would come out of their timeout with three straight kills from Lizzy Williams (Upper Bend, Ohio/Saint Ursula), Malloy, and Leeanne Haus (Mars, Pa./North Allegheny) (Mars, Pa./North Allegheny).  An attack error by Lehigh put the Red Flash up 19-18, and Malloy notched another kill to force a Mountain Hawk timeout at 20-18.  The Flash pushed the lead, but Lehigh battled back and got the best of the point trading, forcing Mullen to call timeout with his team leading 24-23.  Malloy and Williams would combine for a block to edge out the Mountain Hawks 25-23.

The Red Flash opened up the third set on a 3-0 run, but the Mountain Hawks quickly rallied to tie the score.  The teams battled furiously through the set, but Lehigh was able to tie the score at 20-20, and after notching four straight points, won the second set 25-21 and took a 2-1 lead.

In the fourth set, Lehigh again jumped off to a quick start, but the Red Flash fought their way back to cut the score to 12-8.  Malloy notched a kill to make the score 12-9, but Lehigh would capitalize on the errors made by the Red Flash.  The lead swelled to five as the Mountain Hawks made it 16-11 and forced Mullen to take a time-out.  Lehigh would continue to keep the Red Flash at arm's length.  They finally took the win 25-17, taking the match 3-1.

Kiser finished with her second double-double of the day, recording 28 assists and 19 digs.  Wingard had her second consecutive double-digit kill performance with 13 kills on 24 swings with just two errors for a .458 hitting percentage.