BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lafayette College volleyball team defeated crosstown rival Lehigh Saturday in four sets (26-24, 21-25, 25-21, 27-25) to win its third-straight match. 

Senior Leanna Deegan eclipsed the 1,000 kill mark in the Leopards win. She led the way in Saturday's match with 31 kills.  
 
Freshman Abby Nieporte totaled eight kills while sophomore Gracie Gibson notched seven. Sophomore Katie Weston recorded a team-high 21 digs.
 
Lafayette (6-6, 3-1 PL) started off the match going up 4-2 in the first set, before Lehigh (3-10, 0-3 PL) came back to tie and eventually take a 10-6 lead. Both sides put two more points on the board each before it was the Leopards who went on a four-point scoring run to bring the score to 12-12.

From there, the Leopards and Mountain Hawks traded points until a five-point run by Lehigh pushed the Mountain Hawks to a 26-24 first set victory.

Lehigh jumped out in front 13-8 in the first set, but a four-point Leopards scoring run started off a Deegan kill, brought the Leopards back within one point. The Maroon and White battled back to tie up the set at 21-21 before Deegan jump started the offensive with back-to-back kills to eventually give the Leopards the 25-21 second set victory.

The third set saw another close battled between the two sides with Lafayette coming out on top once again 25-21, to set the match to set four.

Lehigh quickly jumped out to the lead in the fourth set going up 8-5 until three-straight attack errors by the Mountain Hawks tied the game up at 8-8. Lafayette then went up 13-11 and the two sides then traded four-point runs to bring the score to 17-15 in favor of the Leopards.

The Mountain Hawks jumped out to a 22-19 lead but a kill by Deegan followed up by kills from Neiporte and Gibson push the Leopards in front 23-22. The sides traded points until a kill by senior Madi Warhmund and a bad set by the Mountain Hawks secured the 27-25 set four victory for the Leopards and the match victory.

The win marks the third-straight win over Lehigh for Lafayette after the Leopards defeated the Mountain Hawks in both meetings during the spring 2021 season.

Lafayette returns back to Kirby Sports Center next week for two home matches. The Leopards are set to take on American on October 1 at 7 p.m. and Loyola on October 2 at 2 p.m.