GREENWOOD, S.C. – Sara Davis recorded a career-high 26 kills as she helped lead Flagler College to a 3-1 (25-16, 19-25, 25-22, 25-21) win over Lander University in a Peach Belt Conference volleyball match Friday night at Finis Horne Arena.

Flagler extended its win streak to three matches and improved to 13-4 overall and 6-2 in the Peach Belt. Lander fell to 17-7 overall and 5-3 in conference play.

"Sara carried a big load tonight," said Matt Affolder, head volleyball coach at Flagler. "She was seeing triple-blocks all night. I was really proud of her from the service line (two aces)."

Davis' 26 kills were the most kills a Flagler player has had in a match since Meg Weathersby had 27 against the University of South Carolina Aiken on Sept. 3, 2010 in a tournament at Lees-McRae College. Davis finished the night hitting .408 with six errors on 49 swings. Along with her two aces, she collected five digs and two block assists.

Megan Hooks finished with 17 kills and hit .240, but overcame a slow start. She had six kills in the second set, but hit .143. Hooks had four kills in each of the next two sets and hit .444 in the fourth set. Rachel Bryant played a solid match as she tied her career-high with seven kills, done twice against Lander, and added eight digs. Tara Savisky tied her season-high with 60 assists and completed her eighth double-double with a team-high 20 digs. Aashley Lechleidner-Rodriguez and Caitlyn Kovach combined for 34 digs. Payten Pillsbury recorded three aces and added nine digs.

Offensively Flagler hit a productive .281 with 70 kills (tying a season-high) and 20 errors on 178 swings. Defensively, the Saints collected 89 digs which was their second-highest amount this season.
 
Halle Dotson recorded a team-high 18 kills and added three total blocks for the Bearcats. Tarryn Angermeier added 12 kills and hit an efficient .480 as she had 25 errorless swings. Julia Ferrera-Alves collected a match-high 24 digs while Ali Kirk tallied 28 assists.

In the first set, Flagler hit .429 with 19 kills on 39 swings, but it was far from easy as there were eight ties and five lead changes. The Bearcats held a 13-9 lead after an attack error by Jenea Reddick which forced at Flagler timeout. The Saints answered out of the timeout by reeling off 12 consecutive points with Pillsbury serving three aces in the run.

The Saints held an early lead in the second set, but the Bearcats rallied back to tie the set at 10-all after a kill by Dotson, and then took an 11-10 lead after another Dotson kill. Just a few points later, after the two teams had tied the score again, Savisky had a service error giving Lander the lead for good, 13-12. However, Flagler pulled to within three (22-19) late, but kills by Kendall Korte and Angermeier along with an ace Ferrera-Alves ended the set 25-19.

In the third set, the Saints never trailed until a kill by Maddie Naal and a block by Reyonia Whipple gave Lander a 19-18 lead. That leads was short-lived as the Saints ripped off six consecutive points and went on to take the set 25-22.

Lander wound up hitting .441 in the fourth set and somehow lost, 25-21. The Bearcats had 16 kills and only one error on 34 swings. The Saints, in turn, hit .317 with 18 kills and five errors on 41 swings. Flagler broke a 5-all tie by running off four straight points to seize control. Davis had back-to-back aces and Hooks had back-to-back kills which forced a Lander timeout. The Bearcats would get as close as two (22-20), but they could not get any closer as Davis recorded her 26^th kill on match point.

Flagler will tangle with USC Aiken tomorrow (Oct. 17) at 2 p.m. at the Convocation Center in a pivotal conference match.