Box Score
FOND DU LAC, Wis. (SabreAthletics.com) – The Marian University women's volleyball team dropped its first Northern Athletics Conference home match of the season to the visiting Benedictine University Eagles in straight sets (26-24, 25-21, 25-22) at Sadoff Gymnasium Friday night, Sept. 30.
The Sabres held leads in each set, including a five-point lead in the final set, but couldn't close out the pesky Eagles in any of them. BU's Candice Cuppini turned in a match-high 16 kills on 30 attempts and the Eagles hit .230 as a team en route to the win. The Sabres turned in a solid .223 hitting percentage and were led by nine kills from
Elizabeth Zutz.
With the win, the Eagles improve to 10-9 overall, 3-1 in the NAC, while the Sabres fall to 5-14 (2-2 NAC).
The first set was close all the way through as neither team led by more than four points when the Sabres held an early 7-3 advantage. The Eagles took their first lead at 12-11, but gave it back soon thereafter on a Zutz kill to pull MU ahead 15-14.
The lead would grow back to three for the Sabres before the game was again tied, this time at 23-all. The Eagles then scored three of the final four points, capped off by a Kaitlin Walsh kill, to take a 26-24 set one victory.
Benedictine built off that momentum in the second set by mounting a 14-7 lead before Marian was forced to call its first time out of set. The Eagles would go up by as many as 11 points when a Brooke Bowman kill made it 20-9. The Sabres then tried to muster a comeback by rallying off five straight points and then cutting the deficit to four on
Katlin Jarvis' kill to make it 22-18. BU would prevent the Sabres from getting any closer, however, as they took the set, 25-21.
Marian's confidence grew in the third set as they came out firing, scoring kills on six points led by
Carlie Kinsey,
Kathryn Braunling and Zutz, and forced the Eagles to take a timeout when trailing 14-6.
The Eagles would chip away, though, eventually tying the score at 21-21 after a 15-7 run and in the midst of five straight points to make it 23-21. After an
Aileen Maier kill to bring the Sabres to within one, Cuppini put a stop to the potential comeback and set the Eagles up for match point, where a set error by the Sabres then ended the match.
Marian recorded seven blocks for the match, led by Maier's four.
Katie Reimer added the team's only solo block in addition to her team-high 25 assists. On the other side, Abby Sattler recorded 40 assists while chipping in five kills and five digs.
The Sabres won't have much time to dwell on the loss as they hit the hardwood again Saturday to take on Aurora at home at 11 a.m.
