Portsmouth, Ohio – Shawnee State volleyball played in day two of the Liz Lykowski Memorial Tournament at Indiana Tech on Saturday, falling to Indiana University-Southeast 3-1 (25-17, 25-18, 28-30, 25-17) and to Goshen (Ind.) 3-1 (20-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-16). Lauren Helbig (SR/Mansfield, Ohio) would also reach a career milestone over the weekend, getting her 1,000th career kill.
The Bears opened the day with a loss to the IU-Southeast Grenadiers 3-1. The Bears fell 25-17 and 25-18 in the first two sets before fighting hard to take the third set 30-28. Despite the overtime win, SSU couldn't keep the momentum and fell to the Grenadiers in the fourth set 25-17 to drop the first match of the day.
Lauren Helbig had 15 kills for the Bears, with Hayley Carle (JR/Chillicothe, Ohio) adding 10. Deanna Smith (JR/Riverview, MI) had 33 assists in the loss. Monica Loftus led IU-Southeast with 15 kills, and Katie Fischer had 11. Hannah Baker contributed 50 assists for the Grenadiers.
The Bears then dropped their second match of the day to Goshen, 3-1. Shawnee State would get off to a good start by winning the first set 25-20, but a stout Goshen front line had 10 blocks in the match. Goshen would win the next three sets to take the match behind the blocks.
Helbig would again have a big game for Shawnee State, getting 14 kills, with Hayley Carle again contributing with 11. Deanna Smith had 40 assists, and Rhyanna Day (SR/Beaver, Ohio) added 19 digs. Kylie Giger had 14 kills for Goshen, with Chris Swartzendruber adding 12 and Darienne Maust adding 11.
With the losses, Shawnee State falls to 4-22 on the season. IU-Southeast improved to 18-7, and Goshen improved to 11-13.
Despite the 1-3 record, Lauren Helbig's contributions would earn her All-Tournament Team honors. Lauren had 53 kills for the tournament, which was also good enough to help her break the 1,000 kills mark for her stellar four year career at Shawnee State.
The Bears are next in action on Thursday, October 20th when they host rivals Rio Grande on Senior Night.
