TIGERS FALL SHORT AGAINST SAINT XAVIER IN CONFERENCE OPENER

CHICAGO, Ill. – In their first action in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference this season, the Olivet Nazarene University women's volleyball team came up a few points short. ONU fell at Saint Xavier, 18-25, 25-21, 20-25, 16-25 Tuesday night in the Shannon Center.

The Tigers held a lead midway through the first set following a five-point spurt. Kaylee Cozen broke a 9-9 tie with a kill, and two points later, Halle Nicholas served up an ace to cap the spurt that had the Tigers up three early. The Cougars would respond with three straight points and later went on to close out the first set.

The two teams went point-for-point in the second set, trading points up to a 21-21 tie. A pair of Saint Xavier errors gave the Tigers the advantage, the Hadleigh Loitz and Sabrina Sanif each put down a kill to seal the set and knot the match at 1-1.

In the third set, The defending CCAC champions built a six-point lead but kills from Loitz opened and closed a six-to-one point spurt in favor of ONU to cut the deficit to one. SXU, however, scored five of the seven final points to take the third set. They went on to wrap up the match a set later, handing the Tigers their first loss in CCAC play.

Kelsey Todd led ONU with 10 kills. Nicholas added eight kills and picked up five digs. Molly Kurtz (seven), Cozen (five), and Loitz (four) combined for 16 kills

Loitz also had a team-best 27 assists. Sara Serafimova had four.

The Tigers, now 2-5 overall, will return to McHie Arena to take on another CCAC foe in Trinity Christian Thursday evening at 7 p.m. 

--ONU—

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