FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Volleyball suffered a pair of setbacks Saturday at the Indiana Tech Liz Lykowski Memorial Tournament. The Bears opened the day with at loss against NAIA No. 4 Madonna (25-14, 25-21, 25-16). SSU appeared to bounce back nicely as it went up 2-0 on Bethel put could never find the match-winning third game that it needed, falling in five games (15-25, 19-25, 25-18, 27-25, 15-10).
For her contributions to the team during the weekend, Kristi Humble was selected as the team's meber of the all-tournament squad.
In the opening game against No. 4 Madonna, the Bears where within a point at 9-8 but their fourth-ranked foes would have rallies that stretched the score to 16-10 and 22-13 before clinching the opening set. In the middle game, SSU was again within striking distance, 14-12, but straight points from Madonna helped seal the second game. In the clinching game, SSU tied the match during six times through 6-all in the final set before six straight points from Madonna paved the way to its victory.
Humble led the Bears in kills to open the day as she finished with six for the match. Paige Zelich also added five more. Hannah Gephart finished with 11 assistss while Bonnie Huesing added eight more. Carly Mazza finished the match with a team-high 17 digs while the Bears blocked a total of four shots over the three games. They were led in blocking by Ashley Galbraith's three block assists.
After tying her career high in kills a day ago, Zelich recorded a match-high and career-high 20 kills against Bethel. Tiffany Jackson added 11 more kills to the Bear attack while Galbraith finished with 10. Gephart finished the match with a career-high 35 assists over the three games while Huesing added 20 more helpers. As a team, the Bears finished with a 66-51 advantage in kills but were hindered by 30 attack errors.
The Bears also dug out 62 of Bethel's attacks over the course of the match led by Mazza's match-high 23. Madison Smith added 16 more while Kirsti Yates finished with 10 to give the Bears three players in that category with double figures.
Volleyball now has three upcoming Mid-South Conference matches as nine of their final 10 regular season contests will be MSC matchups. Up first will be a trip to No. 18 Georgetown next Thursday, October 10 at 7 p.m.
