Volleyball Falls to No. 13 Tigers in First Loss

August 29, 2009

Bethany Beck had a career-high 17 kills against No. 13 Olivet Nazarene Saturday at the UM-Dearborn Early Bird Challenge, but it wasn't enough as the 19th-ranked Trojans suffered their first loss of the season in a 3-1 defeat (22-25, 25-23, 25-19, 26-24) to the Tigers.

Taylor (4-1) picked up the win in the first set, but 18 costly hitting errors in the final three sets contributed to the first setback of the young season. After posting six kills and three blocks through two and a half sets, junior middle blocker Kristen VandeBunte went down with an injury and did not return to the court.

Besides Beck's career hitting day, Kelsey Pritchard returned to double digits in the kills category with 12. Aiding the offense was Betsy Brown and her 38 assists, as well as three aces from junior middle blocker Rachel Kizer.

Freshman libero Courtney Herschberger paced Taylor with 21 digs. Kizer and VandeBunte led Taylor at the net with three blocks each.

"Playing against a nationally-ranked team like Olivet [Nazarene] was a great experience for us with so many young players seeing a lot of game action, said Taylor head coach Brittany Smith. "They were put to the test today, and I thought really responded well. You always want to get the win, but today was a building block for us."

In the second set of the day and the final of the tournament, Taylor returned to the win column with its fourth straight-set victory of the year over Northwestern Ohio (25-21, 26-24, 25-21).

After finishing the tournament with three wins and one loss, Smith assessed her team's performance. "I really was very pleased with how the team played this weekend. Most important to me is that they showed great team effort. That is a big part of our development process right now."

Pritchard led Taylor on offense with 15 kills and just three hitting errors. Brown tallied 30 more assists, and Herschberger again led the defense with 14 digs. Colleen Nelis and Jackie Geile each recorded four blocks.

Pritchard and Geile were both named to the All-Tournament Team

Taylor returns home Tuesday, Sept. 1 for a matchup with NCAA Div-II St. Joseph's College (Ind.). Start time is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Odle Arena.

Box Score - Olivet Nazarene

Box Score - Northwestern Ohio