MEMPHIS, TN - The Allen University volleyball team put up a great effort over the weekend but their rally was not enough as they fell in four sets to SIAC West foes Lemoyne-Owen College and Lane College on the road Saturday.

LOC defeated Allen 25-21 in the first set Saturday morning before AU stormed back to take the second 26-24 behind 14 kills hitting .194. Lemoyne (1-4) then forced Allen into 14 attack errors in set three as they held on to win 25-21. The fourth set was a marathon with Allen registering 18 kills and hitting .289 as AU got out to a nice 14-5 lead. However, LOC came back and went on a 14-4 run of their own to take a 19-18 lead. The teams then traded points back and forth the rest of the set with neither team able to get up by more than one before LOC closed out the set and the match 28-26.

Sophomore OH Maliyah Spencer led with 12 kills while on the right side , freshman Tahmiah Lawson added 8 kills and 3 blocks. Junior middle Sydney Ross then posted 7 kills and two blocks and hit a team-best .267 while senior middle Marlaysia Westbrook also added 5 kills and a block. 
Senior Setter Kayla Chambliss led Allen with 28 assists along with 19 digs and 6 kills while fellow junior setter Lillian Williams recorded 16 assists, 5 digs, and an ace and kill.

Libero Jayla Neely then led the Jackets with a season-high 26 digs along with 2 assists and an ace while senior OH Natalia Maciejewska added 13 digs and two kills. Middle hitters Taylor Lawrence and Jani Smith also combined for 6 kills and 3 blocks. 

Allen next took on Lane (TN) Saturday afternoon but also fell in four sets, 17-25, 26-24, 17-25, 26-28. The Ladies totaled 36 kills but also had 32 attack errors while the Lady Dragons had 42 kills and 29 attack errors. AU had 10 kills in the first set, 10 in the second, just five in the third and 8 in the fourth. 

Allen then got out to another big lead in the fourth set leading 20-13 at one point and looking like it would be extended to a fifth. However, LC would go on a run to get within four at 22-18. Lane would then use a few kills and service aces to get to a match point at 24-22. Although, AU would not quit and went on a 3-0 run to earn their own match point at 25-24. But unfortunately, Lane would clinch the set going on a 4-1 run to end the match.

The Yellowjackets were led by 9 kills from Lawson and 8 kills and 3 blocks from Spencer while Ross also posted 7 kills. Westbrook tallied 4 kills, 2 blocks and 4 digs while fellow senior, Chambliss had 3 kills, 15 assists, 2 aces, and 11 digs. Smith added 4 kills and 3 blocks in the middle while Neely had 19 digs and 7 assists. Sophomore Ds/RS Janae Greene tallied 14 digs and an ace as well .

Allen, now 5-4 and 0-4 in the SIAC will next have a few days off before traveling to Albany, GA for the SIAC Crossover tournament where they will play five matches in two days on Friday and Saturday.