ONU DROPS TWO MATCHES TO ROUND OUT FLORIDA TRIP

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – After picking up a win to open the season at the Viper Sports Academy Classic at Keiser University, the Olivet Nazarene University wrapped up their Florida trip with a pair of losses to close out the weekend.

The Tigers kept it competitive in both matches, but ultimately lost 22-25, 23-25, 23-25 to Southeastern before falling 23-25, 25-21, 8-25, 18-25 to the host school Keiser in the tournament finale.

In the opener, the Tigers built a lead midway through the first set thanks to a four-point run. Halle Nicholas and Analiese Fredin connected on back-to-back kills while the latter teamed up with Ella Johnson to house a block that made it 13-10 Tigers. But an extended 8-3 run from the Fire (2-0) put ONU in a hole that they could not recover from to drop the first set.

The Purple & Yellow Gold rallied back from a large deficit to make it a competitive second set. Trailing 19-12 late, the Tigers ripped off a 9-3 run that was capped off by a Kaitlyn Kolb kill to cut the deficit to one. A kill off the hand of Ava Smith and an ace from Addison Schmidt kept the Tigers alive at 23-24, but a Southeastern kill sealed the set for the Fire.

Back-to-back kills from Nicholas and an SU service error had the Tigers up by a wide margin at 20-14 in the third period, but another late Fire rally snuffed any potential comeback.

Nicholas finished with a team-leading nine kills. Smith tallied six kills of her own to go with 10 digs. Sara Serfimova led ONU with 16 digs. Johnson contributed four kills and four blocks in the setback.

After dropping a competitive first set in the finale, ONU put together a strong defensive second set to even the score 1-1. Kaylee Cozen roofed a solo block to ignite a 7-1 run that put the Tigers in front 13-10 midway through the set. She then connected with Fredin on a block that extended the lead to four, with Nicholas putting the finishing touches on the set-winning kill.

Keiser (5-0) would respond with multiple big runs in the third and fourth sets to take the victory. Nicholas recorded a season-high 15 kills on a .243 hitting average. Fredin racked up a career-best 27 assists to pair with 11 digs. She was one of three Tigers to reach double figures in digs, alongside Breanna Lamie (15) and Sarafimova (11).

The Tigers, now 1-3 on the season, will travel to Grand Rapids, Mich., to take on Aquinas and Huntington in a tri-match on Wednesday.

--ONU—

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