Leesburg, Fla. – For the second time in their last four matches, the Lake-Sumter State College volleyball team took down a nationally ranked opponent.

Last week the Lakehawks knocked off No. 17 Kansas City Kansas Community College in a clean sweep. Wednesday night marked the Sun-Lakes Conference opener and the schedule did not get any easier with No. 18 St. John's River State College coming to town.

Entering with a 10-4 overall record, the Vikings were met with a flurry of hard hit balls from Emma Gray and Casey James in the first two sets. LSSC took the lead early in both set one and two and never relinquished the lead, winning by scores of 25-18 and 25-14.

Set three was a different story for Lake-Sumter. St. John's was able to go up 19-11, before the Lakehawks mounted a strong comeback. A solid run by the LSSC offense closed the gap to 23-21, but that would be as close as they would get. The Vikings finished off set three with a 25-21 victory.

Lake-Sumter jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the fourth set and carried at least a two point lead all the way through to secure the match with a 25-23 win.

The offense hit .326 on the night, their second highest percentage of the season. The defense was all over the court collecting a season high 79 digs as a team. Amanda Berecz tallied a career high 25 digs in the match. Emma Gray and Talyn Allard both put up double-doubles. Gray finished with 19 kills and 11 digs, while Allard boasted 13 kills and 18 digs. Gabriela Hernandez was outstanding with a career high 53 assists, the most since Emily Smith had 55 assists in 2013.

"We have been making great strides in practice and the girls are seeing the results on the court," said Head Coach, Amanda Phelps. "We've had a great atmosphere at our home games and the girls are reacting to it and we just need to keep the momentum moving in the right direction."

The Lakehawks (1-0, 4-5) will hit the road to take on Florida Gateway College (2-7) in a Sun-Lakes Conference matchup, Friday at 6 pm.