The Ashland volleyball team headed into the University of Indianapolis Tournament on Friday with an undefeated record of 4-0, but ended up dropping three of their four matches.

The Eagles lost their first three matches to Wheeling Jesuit, Minnesota Duluth and Colorado School of Mines. 

Those three teams are some of the highest ranked teams in Division II volleyball. They are ranked third, sixth and tenth teams, respectively.

“We played three top ten teams in the country,” said head coach Cass Dixon. “We were in every match. We were competitive in every match, but when you spot really good teams five or six points, they’re going to take advantage of that.”

In Ashland’s three losses, they were not able to win more than one set, but they were competitive in many of the sets.

The Eagles lost all three sets to Wheeling Jesuit, but lost the second set in a close 24-26 game. 

Minnesota Duluth beat Ashland 3-1, but AU lost both the first and fourth sets by two. Colorado Mines also defeated AU 3-1 and Ashland lost the third set by four.

“Our scores were fairly close considering we spotted them some points,” said Dixon. “They’re solid, they’re very consistent, they play good defense. They spring together a lot of points because of their play and we weren’t able to maintain that consistency like they did. They probably didn’t think that we were going to compete as much as we did.”

Coach Dixon sees this as a chance for her players to learn from the top teams. 

“I actually think this was a great eye opener for our team because they saw what those teams do and now we know what we need to be better at going forward,” siad Dixon.

Ashland did win their final match of the tournament, winning in straight sets against the host team, the University of Indianapolis. The Eagles had beaten Indianapolis 3-1 earlier in the season.

“Having played U-Indy last weekend and beating them in four (sets), and having the opportunity to play them again with them knowing what our strengths and weaknesses are and us knowing what their strengths and weaknesses are, we were able to set up a pretty good game plan,” said Dixon.

It also ended the tournament on a high note for Ashland, getting rid of some of the bad taste from how the tournament started. 

“It gives us confidence going into the GLIAC play and hopefully that will carry over for us,” said Dixon

There are still huge expectations from Dixon on where she wants the team to be at the end of the season. 

“It’s a new start to a new year. We’ve got some phenomenal players,” said Dixon. “We have some new faces that are out there on the court this year. It’s exciting, they make the game exciting. When you look at the big picture and what we want to achieve, our goal is to win a national championship.”

AU will be playing at home for the first time this season on Friday and Saturday and Dixon encourages students to come watch.

“It’s better than sitting in your dorm Friday night and not doing anything.”

The Eagles will open their conference season with the teams they ended conference play with last fall. 

They face Findlay in their home opener on Friday at 7 p.m. and Hillsdale on Saturday at 2 p.m.