The Malone University volleyball team suffered its second loss in as many days, falling to Lake Erie College in five sets on the road Saturday evening by a 25-23, 22-25, 25-15, 12-25, 15-17 final score. In the deciding fifth set, the Pioneers had five chances at match-point, but came up short all five times.
 
With the loss, the Pioneers fell to 15-13 on the season and 11-5 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. Lake Erie, meanwhile, improved to 20-9 on the season and 11-6 in the G-MAC and closed to within a half game for a second place in the G-MAC East Division Standings. The top two teams in the East at the end of the season will host a G-MAC Quarterfinal match.
 
Recap
After trailing 13-17 in the first set, Malone used an 11-4 run to take a 24-21 lead and eventually closed the set on a kill by Hannah Eliason. In a seesaw second set which saw 13 ties and seven lead changes, the Pioneers and Storm were tied 18-18 before Lake Erie pulled away for the final time.
 
In the third set, Malone extended a 9-8 lead to 21-12 on a 12-4 run and eventually clinched the set on back-to-back kills by Faith Lau. Lake Erie countered with a 25-12 win in the match-tying fourth set in which they never trailed, clinching the set on a 7-0 run.
 
In the final set, Malone raced out to an 11-6 lead over the hosts before Lake Erie closed the gap to 11-8 with consecutive kills. The Pioneers answered with back-to-back kills by Lau and Veronica Gehring to retake the five-point lead before two errors helped the Storm come within three again at 13-10.
 
A Lake Erie service error gave Malone a 14-10 advantage and four match-points. The Storm held off Malone all four times, using three kills and a service ace to tie it at 14-14. Following a Lake Erie attack error, Malone was given their fifth opportunity to close out the match, but the Storm battled back to win it 17-15 with three straight kills.
 
Lake Erie finished the match with 71 total kills. Malone out-hit the Storm ..254 to .222, collected 67 kills, and tallied a season-high 108 digs to LEC's 98, but failed to come up with the game-winner.
 
Hannah Eliason finished with 19 kills in the match, the second-most in her career. Veronica Gehring added 14 kills, Mallory Adams totaled 13 kills, Faith Lau chipped in with 10, and Rachel Santos rounded out the five-pronged attack with nine kills. Elizabeth Selleny collected a team-high 31 assists as Cathryn Miller totaled 29.
 
Defensively, senior libero Maggie Hamrock equaled a career-high with 26 digs while Lau set a new career-high with 21 and Selleny completed the double-double with a career-high 15 digs. Defensive specialist Abby Hasebein (16) and Sydney Black (14) combined for 30 digs. At the net, Miller posted a team-high five blocks while Eliason contributed four.
 
Lake Erie's Crystal Kedroske ended the night with a match-high 25 kills and 20 digs.
 
Up Next
Malone returns home on Tuesday, October 30th to host Walsh in a pivotal rivalry match at 7:00 pm.