​The Lee County Yellow Jackets volleyball team rallied late to force a fifth set but came up short in a 3-2 home loss to Union Pines on Tuesday night.The Yellow Jackets fell 25-18, 20-25, 16-25, 25-23, 12-15.“Obviously, the games we won, we were a different team,” Lee County coach Cindy Kelly said. “Their confidence really comes from them attacking. We worked on our block yesterday in practice, and at times you saw spurts, but we can’t miss blocking assignments against a team that swings that way.“Union Pines played an excellent game, and we’re going to get into practice and look at the things that we struggled with tonight and get ready for Southern Lee on Thursday.”The Yellow Jackets (16-4, 9-4 Carolina Pines) got things rolling early with a 4-0 lead that turned into a 6-3 advantage. The Vikings (13-10, 9-4 Carolina Pines) rallied to tie the set at 9.Both teams traded the lead down the stretch until the Yellow Jackets went on a run to make it 19-15 and eventually closed out the set on a 6-3 run to secure the 25-18 win.Both teams carried the momentum into the second set, with another back-and-forth battle early. With the score tied at 11, the Vikings turned the momentum in their favor with a run that pushed their lead to 19-14 before Lee County came clawing back to make it 20-17.Despite the rally, the Vikings secured the second set 25-20 to tie the match at 1.The third set was all Union Pines early as the Vikings took a 7-3 lead and never looked back, pushing their advantage to 14-7 and eventually 20-13 before closing out the set 25-16 for a 2-1 match lead.The fourth set was a thriller, with the Vikings looking to close out the match and the Yellow Jackets trying to stay alive and force a fifth set.The set featured back-and-forth action throughout, with one to three points separating the teams. Tied at 21 late, the Yellow Jackets finished with a rally to win 25-23 and force a deciding fifth set.The Vikings came out swinging in the fifth, quickly jumping to an 11-5 lead. The Yellow Jackets responded out of a timeout and cut the Union Pines lead to 13-11, but the Vikings held on for the 15-12 win and a season-series split with Lee County.“It’s just the heart that these girls have,” Kelly said. “They really want to win, they want to play together, and volleyball is a game of momentum. Sometimes it can be a roller coaster, but I wouldn’t want to be on any other roller coaster than with these girls right here.”Velzy Smith and Makayla McDougold led Lee County with 13 kills each. Smith added 11 digs, while McDougold had five aces and nine digs. Tatum Stewart added five kills and one dig.Lee County will close out the regular season Thursday when it hosts Southern Lee at 6 p.m. before the Carolina Pines Conference tournament begins next week.