PHILADELPHIA, PA- Madi Tyus (Plano, TX/Bishop Lynch) and Nicole Adams (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa East) each had eight kills and Tyus added two aces but the Radford Highlanders pulled out three close sets to close out day one at the Valley Forge Invite hosted by Penn.
 
FIRST SET RECAP

• A pair of Lexi Lambert kills got the Red Flash out to a 3-0 start
• SFU kept the early momentum on kills from Cecilia Esposito (Coraopolis, Pa./Montour) and Madi Tyus (Plano, TX/Bishop Lynch) and led 8-4
• The Saint Francis defense forced Radford into mistakes and a trio of errors stopped a Highlander run and gave SFU a 12-8 advantage
• Radford would chip away at the lead until a service ace knotted the match at 15
• The Highlanders would take their first lead at 19-17 and hold it until
• A Cecilia Esposito (Coraopolis, Pa./Montour) kill would tie the match at 21 and a Lambert kill knotted it at 22 as the teams traded points
• Radford would score the final three points of the set, despite an SFU timeout and take the first set 25-22

 
SECOND SET

• Kills from Madi Tyus (Plano, TX/Bishop Lynch) and Nicole Adams (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa East) paced the offense early in the second set
• Radford would take advantage of a pair of SFU blocking errors and a block of their own to go up 6-2 and prompt an SFU timeout
• The lead would grow to 8-3 before a Tyus kill got the Red Flash going
• The SFU defense would force a trio of errors and SFU drew even at 11 off a Tyus ace
• A pair of Radford blocks sparked the Highlanders who'd force another SFU timeout after winning three-straight points to go up 15-12
• The Red Flash would rally back to tie the match at 15 off a block and a pair of Highlander errors
• Radford again would take a three-point lead at 20-17 but the Flash would again battle back, using a kill from Emily Pieper (Paonia, Colo./Paonia) to tie the match at 20
• The turning point of the set came when Radford won the next three points to go up 23-20
• SFU would rally back to make it 23-22 but Radford would close out the set 25-22

 
THIRD SET

• A pair of Radford aces got the Highlanders out to a 3-0 lead
• SFU again battled back with a Tyus ace and a Adams kill to make it 4-3
• The Flash would tie the match at five and neither team would take two-point lead until Radford would go up 11-9
• The turning point of the set came when Radford reeled off five-straight points to go up 17-11
• Radford would extend the lead to as many as eight at 21-13 before the Red Flash stormed back
• SFU ran off five-straight off Jess Barret's serve to close to within three at 21-18
• The Flash would get no closer than the three the rest of the way and Radford closed out the set and the match at 25-20

 
LOOKING AHEAD
The Red Flash close out the Valley Forge Invite by taking on the host Quakers of Penn tomorrow morning at 10. The game can be seen on ESPN +.