LAURINBURG — The St. Andrews University women’s volleyball team edged AAC South Division foe Allen University (S.C.) in a tense five sets on the road Tuesday.

SAU 3, Allen 2

St. Andrews rolled to a convincing first set win 25-11 over the Lady Yellow Jackets by registering 10 kills and hitting .212. The match turned in Allen’s favor as they squeaked out the next two sets from the Lady Knights 25-23 and 32-30 in a very exciting third set.

St. Andrews totaled more kills than the Lady Yellow Jackets in each of the sets with 13 in the second set and 17 in third, but the Lady Knights made 25 attack errors in those two sets which kept Allen in the match.

The Lady Knights rallied back to outplay Allen over the final two sets to take the match 25-19 and 15-11 as they led from start to finish in the fifth set on nine kills hitting .227. St. Andrews only made eight more attack errors for the entire rest of the match as they cleaned up their game and pushed them to the win.

St. Andrews recorded more kills overall, 61-43 and hit .126 for the match while keeping Allen under a .100 hitting percentage.

The Lady Knights were led by a season-high 19 kills from senior outside hitter Tessa Smith. Smith hit .119 and totaled 20 digs to record her 11th double-double of the season. The Lady Knights senior also led the team with four service aces.

Senior middle blocker Kiah Cheatham finishing with 14 kills with just three errors to hit .289 with six digs and eight total blocks including two solo.

Fellow middle, senior Lindsey Wagner, added 11 kills and five digs with a block while senior right side hitter Andrea Navarro also contributed eight kills with three digs and two blocks in the win.

Sophomore setter Shalia Powell led the Lady Knights with 31 assists and added 10 digs for her eight double-double. Powell also had four blocks and a kill.

Freshman libero Karina Lozada finished with a season-high 31 digs adding two assists, one ace and one kill.

St. Andrews improves to 13-7 overall and 9-4 in the AAC while Allen falls to 10-8 overall and 3-7 in the conference.

The Lady Kngiths returned home Thursday to host Truett-McConnell (0-15) before hosting Point University (15-6) on Friday at 11 a.m.

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ByTroy Baranik

SAU Sports Information Director