ONU DROPS A PAIR OF TIGHTLY CONTESTED MATCHES IN PALOS HEIGHTS

PALOS HEIGHTS, Ill. – Playing their third and fourth matches in just two days, the Olivet Nazarene University women's volleyball dropped a pair of games hosted by Trinity Christian College Saturday afternoon in DeVos Gymnasium.

In two tightly contested games, ONU fell 23-25, 24-26, 15-25 to an undefeated William Woods team in the opener before dropping a 20-25, 19-25, 25-18, 12-25 match to Aquinas in the final game of the day.

Both teams put up 27 kills each across the first two sets in the opener. Trailing 16-14 in the first set, kills from Molly Kurtz and Halle Nicholas ignited a five-point spurt that put the Tigers up by three. The Owls, however, retorted with a seven-point run moments later to steal the first set.

The Owls rode that momentum into the second set, doubling up ONU on the scoreboard midway through with a 16-8 advantage. That was when a Kurtz kill ignited a 12-4 scoring stretch that knotted the score at 20-all. Back-to-back kills from Hadleigh Loitz followed by a block from Nicholas and Anna Taylor closed the spurt that brought the game back to even.

A three-point run by the Owls put them at set point, but a Nicholas kill sparked a three-point run that forced a deuce. But William Woods rallied off two quick points to take the set, ultimately taking the match a set later.

Nicholas led all attackers with 12 kills in the opener. Loitz racked up 20 assists while Ashley Poland led the defensive effort with a game-high 20 digs.

After falling behind two sets to none in the closing match against Aquinas, the Tigers rallied with a quick start to win the third set. Kills from Nicholas, Kelsey Todd, and Luisa Slompo contributed to the opening run that had ONU up 10-4 early.

The Tigers closed out the third set thanks to a service ace from Slompo and a kill off the hand of Sabrina Sanif. Aquinas ultimately closed out the match in the fourth set.

Nicholas was the only Tiger to reach double figures in kills, putting down 11. Kurtz and Sanif each had six, Todd finished with three and Slompo tabbed a pair.

The Tigers, now 2-4 on the season, will return to the court on Sept. 12 to open up conference play against the defending CCAC champion Saint Xavier at the Shannon Center in Chicago, Ill.

--ONU—

*Contact: Evan Wild, Sports Information Director, ewwild@olivet.edu