MEMPHIS - The Rhodes College volleyball team held off a strong rally from Sewanee as they defeated the Tigers in Southern Athletc Association play. The Lynx took the match in four sets on Saturday afternoon at Mallory Gymnasium.

Rhodes moves to 10-11 overall and 6-7 in the SAA as they are one game behind Centre for fourth. The two teams already know they will meet in the first round of the SAA Championship in two weeks.

The Lynx finished with 53 kills to 19 errors for an impressive .225 hitting percentage. They held Sewanee to 41 kills and 31 errors for a .060 hitting percentage. Rhodes had 11 blocks to Sewanee's five while they had 47 assists and 67 digs.

Rhodes came out on fire as kills from junior Elasha Williams, sophomore Ellen Platt, and sophomore Katherine Bolyard gave Rhodes a 7-1 lead. Sewanee cut the lead to 9-4 before Rhodes pushed the lead out to 12-4. 

With match at 14-6, Rhodes would score seven straight points to take a commanding 21-6 lead and eventually closed the set at 25-8. 

It would be more of the same in set two as Platt, Williams, and sophomore Caroline Perlis gave Rhodes an early 9-3 lead. The Lynx defense stifled any sort of attack from Sewanee, as they got a hand on nearly every attack.

Sewanee would close the gap to 18-14 before another Rhodes run, this time scoring six straight points, buried the Tigers. Bolyard and freshman Heather Antrim were excellent during the run while sophomore Lulu Schulz closed the set with a kill for a 25-16 victory.

It would be a much closer third set, but one that Rhodes led for most of the way, holding onto a slim 16-13 lead. However, this time Sewanee had a big run, scoring eight straight points to take a 21-16 lead.

Rhodes would respond though as they came all teh way back to lead 25-24. However, a back-and-forth exchange proved to good for the Tigers as they forced a third set with a 29-27 win.

The Lynx came out firing in the fourth set as they looked to put the match away, leading 11-1 early on. Though it looked at though Rhodes was in control, Sewanee began to chip away at the lead, finally tying the match at 23 late in the set.

The two teams again exchanged points, but Sewanee took a 27-26 lead as they were looking for a fifth set. Rhodes would score three straight points behind kills from Schulz and Perlis to clinch the match at 29-27.

Williams finished with 12 kills with an impressive .310 hitting percentage while Bolyard also had 12 kills. Platt was right behind them with nine on the afternoon. Sophomore Hannah McCarty finished with 25 assists while sophomore Arati Joshi had 14. 

Defensively, Williams and Bolyard each had 13 digs while senior Catherine Grimes had 14. Sophomore Caroline Perlis finished with eight blocks while Williams added six blocks to her monster game.

Rhodes will take on Centre in the final SAA game of the regular season at 11 AM. It will be Senior Day as Rhodes will honor Catherine Grimes and Alex Overstreet before the matchup.