Fort Lauderdale, Fla.—Lynn University's volleyball team split a pair of games with a 3-1 victory over Texas A&M International and then a 3-0 loss to No. 25 Wheeling Jesuit in record breaking day one of the 6thAnnual Shark Classic on Friday. In game one against TAMIU Lynn totaled 28 block assists to tie the all-time record at Lynn while Shannon Dugan and Briana Cox both set new career-highs.
In set number one of game number one, the Blue & White came out to an early 2-0 lead before the Dust Devils of TAMIU tied things up at 2-2. The match went back and forth and was tied again at 10-10 after a Brittany Brown kill.
TAMIU then opened up its biggest lead of the set up 19-15 then again up 21-17. Down by four, the Fighting Knights rallied to tie it up at 22 but fell 26-24. In the loss, the Knights totaled six block assists while Lizzy Raffa led Lynn with five kills.
Set two saw a very different result for the Fighting Knights. After the match was tied at six, Lynn posted a 13-3 run to amass an impressive 19-9 tilt over the Dust Devils. Lynn closed out the set and tied the overall match with a 25-15 victory in set two. The Lynn defense held TAMIU to a negative hitting percentage with 10 block assists in the set.
With the overall match tied at 1-1 and the momentum in favor of Lynn, Angie Caple and Shannon Dugan led the Blue to a 2-1 advantage in the overall match with a 25-20 win in the third set. Dugan collected five kills on a .400 hitting percentage while Caple added four kills and a stellar .571 hitting mark.
After a 14-14 tie in set three, Lynn collected the next three points and forced a TAMIU timeout. Out of the timeout and up 17-15, LU closed out the set with an 8-3 run.
Up two sets to one, the Fighting Knights then posted their largest margin of victory for the match with a 25-11 romping of the Dust Devils in set four. Brown led Lynn with five kills as Briana Cox totaled three blocks in the set.
For the match, Dugan posted a career-bests in hitting percentage with a .417 mark and digs with 16. The sophomore collected a double-double with 12 kills as well. Cox also set a career mark with seven block assists. Brown and Raff also added double-digit kills with 10 each in the match.
A couple hours later, LU faced the No. 25 Wheeling Jesuit Cardinals and fell in straight sets. In set one, Lynn tied things up at four after a Wheeling Jesuit service error but then suffered a 6-1 run from the Cardinals and forced a Fighting Knights timeout. Lynn could not stop the bleeding, however, and fell behind 20-10 and eventually dropped the set by a 25-17 count.
The Fighting Knights look to answer in set two and grabbed a 12-11 tilt. Jesuit then tied the match on the next point and never looked back en route to a 25-19 win and a commanding 2-0 lead in the overall match.
Set three started with Jesuit rolling to a 10-3 lead, but the Blue & White rallied to knot things up at 20 on a Caple kill. Jesuit then captured the next two points to go up 22-20 before Lynn collected a point on a Jesuit attack error to make it a 22-21 game in favor of the Cardinals. Jesuit then closed out the match on a 3-1 run.
Lynn committed 10 costly service errors while hitting .200 for the game. Raffa led the Fighting Knights with 11 kills as Brown and Caple added eight kills each.
The Blue & White continues action in the 6th Annual Shark Invite on Saturday, Sept. 1, starting at 9 a.m. versus Merrimack then again at 1 p.m. against Wayne State. For more information, log on to LynnFightingKnights.com, 'Like' us on Facebook and follow @LUKnights on Twitter and Instagram.
