GWYNEDD VALLEY Pa. – The Albright Lions women's volleyball team lost three straight sets after winning the first one as they dropped a road non-conference game to Gwynedd Mercy on Thursday night.
 
With the loss, the Lions drop to 3-3 on the season overall after suffering a second loss in three nights this week. Meanwhile, the Griffins improve to 5-4 overall and avenge a 3-0 loss to Albright from a season ago.
 
Sophomore Bryana Chambers led the Lions with a team-high 10 kills and tallied one solo block as well. Classmate Brooke Franklin added five kills along with a team-high four blocks as well; while Kaitlyn Chell registered a team-high 24 digs and added seven kills. Senior Becca Davis added 22 digs and sophomore Alexa Poss paced the offense with 27 assists.
 
In the first set, the Griffins jumped out to an early 4-1 lead before the Lions rallied back to tie the set at five following a kill from Poss. Gwynedd Mercy would then win five of the next six points to take a 10-6 lead before stretching the lead out to 14-9. Albright would again fight back to take a 15-14 lead after four-straight attack errors and a kill from Chell. The Griffins took five of the next seven points to take a 19-17 lead, but that would be the last lead they would have in the set. Albright would win the final eight of 11 points to take the first set.
 
The Griffins again started hot to start a set as they went up 6-2, and eventually worked their way out to a 10-5 lead. Albright won four of the next five points to cut the Griffins lead down to 11-9, but they would not get any closer for the rest of the set. Gwynedd Mercy would extend its lead out to as many as eight at 21-13 before taking the set at 25-20.
 
Albright took an early 3-1 lead in the third set before the Griffins came back to take a 6-4 lead.  Gwynedd Mercy continued to take advantage of the Lions mistakes as they eventually stretched the lead out to 14-8.  Gwynedd Mercy would take an 18-12 lead and followed by winning the final seven points to take the third set and go up 3-1.
 
The fourth set saw the Lions take an early 4-1 lead, and eventually extend the lead out to 7-3.  A service ace from senior Kaylyn Haan extended the Lions lead out to 10-6, which turned out to be the Lions largest lead of the set. Albright maintained its lead at 15-11 before the Griffins stormed back to tie the set at 15. The Lions would fight back and work the lead back out to three at 22-19 to seemingly prepare to force a fifth set. Unfortunately for the Lions, the Griffins used three-straight kills and a service ace to go up 24-22 before closing out the match with a 25-23 fourth set win.
 
Albright was held to a -.005 hitting percentage which included hitting just -115 in the third set. The Lions posted a season-best six blocks, but the Griffins had nine service aces to Albright's three. Liz Schule led the Griffins with 14 kills and Madelyn Mosser added 10 kills, which included three-straight in the eventual game-winning run for the Griffins in the fourth set.
 
The Lions will return home on Saturday, September 15^th when they will host Cedar Crest in a morning matinee at 11 a.m.