The volleyball team continued their slide this past weekend at the Mizuno GLVC/GLIAC Crossover Tournament. The team dropped all three games, and are now 9-9 and on a six game losing streak. After last weekend, the team couldn’t afford to lose out again. The weekend consisted of games against tough teams though, as the Eagles faced off against Northern Kentucky, Lewis and Bellarmine.

Northern Kentucky

The Eagles opened up the weekend with a loss to No. 13 Northern Kentucky by the score of 3-1(18-25, 25-16, 14-25 and 17-25). While the second set went to the Eagles, they just couldn’t keep up with the Norse.

Senior Anesia Benton led the offensive attack, racking up 12 kills to lead the team for the game. Freshman Kathy Fletcher was second with 11 kills and a .308 hitting percentage.

The story of the first set was the Norse hitting; they hit a very good .444 to pull away from the Eagles in what was a close set up until the end. The second set was all Eagles, as they never trailed in the set.

The third and fourth sets though were a different story, as the Norse completely took over. In the fourth set, the Eagles led early but just couldn’t maintain a rhythm, as Northern Kentucky rattled off 11 of the next 13 points to take over the set.

Crystal Elliott led the team with 31 assists and six digs. Kate Eckels and Arian Martin led the team with 10 digs apiece.

Lewis

Later in the night, the Eagles again went down to a ranked team 3-1(25-21, 17-25, 23-25 and 22-25). This time, it was against No.21 Lewis.

Crystal Elliott nearly recorded a triple-double in the game, tallying up 39 assists with 10 kills and eight digs. Kathy Fletcher recorded her first career double-double, with 12 kills and 14 digs for the game.

In the first set, the Eagles came back from being down 15-9 and finished on a 16-6 run to close out and win the first set. In the second, the Flyers led from start to end and took the set from the Eagles.

In the third set, the Eagles came back once again but came up just short when they couldn’t get the clutch game-deciding points in the end. In the fourth set, the Eagles led it early, but midway through the set, the Flyers took control of the game on a run of their own.

Arian Martin led the team in digs with 21, while Megan Rohlfs had nine followed by Eckels with eight.

Bellarmine

After two losses the day before, the Eagles came out ready for the Knights and won the first two sets and looked ready to snap their losing streak. Then the Knights fought back and took AU to five sets where they showed that they wanted the win more and won the match, stunning the Eagles 3-2. The Eagles just fell flat at the end and couldn’t close out the game (26-24, 25-19, 17-25, 22-25 and 16-18).

The first set went back and forth, and the Eagles even rallied to win the set. Then, in the second set, AU just kept the foot on the throttle and led the entire second set.

With a 6-1 run to start the third set, Bellarmine took over some of the momentum and never lost the lead in the third set. In the fourth set, the match was close being tied 15-15 at one point before the Knights went on a four point run and never looked back to take the set.

In the fifth set, both teams fought hard with five different lead changes and nine tie scores. AU fought off several match points too, being down 14-11 at one point before getting three straight points. From there, the two teams traded points before the Knights finally got two straight points in to end the game, sending the Eagles home with their heads in their hands with a sixth straight loss.

Brittany Snider led the team in kills with a season team-high 22 for the game. Arian Martin had 24 digs, with Megan Rohlfs accruing a career-high 12 digs.

The Eagles are on a downward spiral the past six games, and with this upcoming weekend continuing on the road, the team has to find an answer, and soon, otherwise they may find themselves under .500 for the first time all season. With the experience they received playing against ranked teams, the team should feel better about themselves knowing they could produce set wins. Now, the question is if they will improve on their flaws or not to get back over the hump and get back on track towards a potential postseason berth.