HARROGATE, Tenn. --- Lincoln Memorial placed four players with double-figure kills as the Railsplitters outlasted visiting Tusculum 3-2 in a five-set South Atlantic Conference thriller at Mars Gym Tuesday night.
LMU (14-13, 11-10 SAC) won the match by scores of 25-13, 22-25, 15-25, 25-21 and 15-7 to gain a split in the season series and avenge last month's 3-0 loss to the Pioneers. Tusculum ends its regular-season with an 11-17 overall record (8-14 in SAC).
Tusculum's Sabrina Schleuger led all players with 23 kills as she finished the evening with a .327 hitting percentage. Rachel Garnett added 12 kills and three blocks, while Laryssa Welch added nine kills and four blocks.
Senior setter Hannah Berling tallied 43 assists and seven digs, while senior teammate Danae Stauffer added two kills and three blocks for the Pioneers.
Freshman libero Melissa Mazur tallied a match-high 29 digs to give her 711 for the season, the fourth most by a Pioneer. Mazur's 6.84 digs per set average is currently the best in the nation (NCAA Division II) and the third-best average in a TC single-season.
Kiera Holland led the Railsplitters with 17 kills and a .433 hitting percentage (17-4-30). Jazzy Oates added 13 kills, hit .324 and accounted for eight blocks (2 solos, 6 assists. Danielle Ged tallied a dozen kills, while Liz Brock posted a double-double with 11 kills and 11 digs in the victory.
LMU setter Abby Cash finished with a double-double as well with 4 assists and 19 digs. The Railsplitters accounted for 88 total digs, including 24 by Erica Whiteaker and Casey Mense's 11. Whiteaker also led all players with her five service aces.
In the first set, LMU jumped out to a 9-2 lead and used the hot-start to win the opener 25-13. The Railsplitters hit .222 for the set, led by Holland's six kills in the frame.
Trailing 17-15 in the second set, Tusculum closed out the frame with a 10-5 spurt, including a pair of Garnett kills down the stretch to win 25-22 and even the match at 1-1. Tusculum got five kills each from Garnett and Schleuger in the set.
The Pioneers hit for a sizzling .529 in the third set and erupted with an 11-3 run to win the frame 25-15. Tusculum posted 19 kills in 34 total attempts with one hitting error. Schleuger tallied 10 in the set, while Welch contributed four kills as the Pioneers took a 2-1 lead in the contest.
The fourth set went back and forth as the score was tied 11 times and including five lead changes. The Railsplitters went on a 6-2 run to end the frame to gain a 25-21 win at send the match to a deciding fifth set.
It was all LMU in the final frame as the Splitters hit .353, while the Pioneers hit minus-.150 with six errors, with five coming via LMU blocks as the hosts won 15-7 to seal the match.
LMU finished the evening with a .238 hitting percentage, including 66 kills, 23 errors and 181 attacks. Tusculum ended the night hitting .158 with 56 kills, 27 errors and 184 attempts.
At the end for the regular-season Berling's 10.06 assists per set average is the sixth-best in a Tusculum season. Her 2,716 career assists are fourth in the TC record book, while her 7.02 career assists per set average is fifth all-time.
Stauffer ends the regular-season with 2,613 career total attempts, which are the presently the ninth most in program history.
Schleuger's 0.41 service aces per set average is presently tied for the eighth-best average in a TC season. Her 0.38 career aces per set tally is the third highest by a Pioneer.
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