TIGERS FALL TO TOP-SEEDED JUDSON, BOW OUT OF CCAC TOURNAMENT

ELGIN, Ill. – The Olivet Nazarene University women's volleyball team knew they had a tough task ahead of them when they traveled to top-seeded Judson for the semifinal round of the CCAC Tournament. The Tigers gave it their all, but ultimately fell 25-22, 25-21, 25-14 to bring their season to a close.

Despite the straight-set defeat, the Tigers opened the match with a sizeable lead. Hadleigh Loitz used her serve to build a quick 4-0 lead, and a pair of kills from Halle Nicholas had the Tigers up on the Eagles 14-11 midway through the first set.

Judson (23-3) eventually battled back to retake a 20-19 lead, but Anna Taylor put down a kill to even the score. And on the next volley, an Eagle attack error had the Tigers back in front. But Judson rattled off five straight points to steal the opener.

The Eagles found their rhythm from there. Trailing 20-17 late in the second set, back-to-back blocks from Kaylee Cozen cut the deficit to one. Nicholas had the answer on both of Judson's next two points to keep it a one-point game, but the Eagles strung together another late run in taking a 2-0 advantage.

The Tigers scored the first point of the third set before running out of steam. Judson would go on to score nine of the next ten points in taking a commanding 9-2 lead and never looked back, eliminating the Tigers from the CCAC Tournament.

Nicholas was the only Tiger to finish with double-digit kills, putting away 10. Cozen registered five. Kurtz ended with four. Kaitlyn Kolb and Kelsey Todd chipped in three kills apiece.

Loitz tallied 25 assists to go with her seven digs. Sara Serafimova paced the defense with 15 digs.

ONU ends the season with a 12-15 record.

--ONU—

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