FOND DU LAC, Wis. - The Marian University women's volleyball team fell in their NACC finale to Aurora University with set scores of 22-25, 23-25, 25-13, 25-22, and 15-9.  The loss eliminated the Sabres from contention for a berth into the NACC Tournament and dropped their record to 6-21 with a 4-7 conference ledger.

The Sabres used an early 9-1 run to take an 11-4 lead in the first set only to have the Spartans slowly come back cutting the deficit down to a 21-20 MU lead.  Marian was able to finish out the set scoring four of the final six points to earn the set win.

Jessica Roberts and Catelyn Brehm each had five kills in the set, while Amber Baker and Katrina Jansen had eight digs.

After an 8-4 start to the set in favor of Aurora, the Sabres bounced back with a 7-1 run later in the set to give Marian an 18-14 advantage.  Morgan Dercks propelled the run at the service line as MU was able to force three Aurora hitting errors.  Aurora quickly bounced back with four consecutive points but once again struggled to keep the ball in-bounds as a service error and two attacking errors gave Marian a 21-18 lead.  The Sabres held onto this advantage the remainder of the set and capped off the set with a kill from Alexandra Meidl.

Marian held Aurora to a .059 hitting percentage in the set, while Jessica Roberts recorded six kills on 11 attempts.

The third set was all Aurora as the Spartans hit .333 and scored the final six points of the set.  The fourth set was highly competitive as the largest lead in the set was a meager three points at 4-1 MU.  Similarly to the third set, however, the Spartans scored the final four points of the set with three kills from Peyton McKenzie.

In the winner-take-all fifth set it was the serve of McKenzie that helped give Aurora an early lead that they were able to maintain to complete the come-back victory.

Roberts had a season-high 22 kills with a .259 hitting percentage to lead the Sabres, while Brehm chipped in 15 kills.  Jansen recorded a career-high 34 digs with Baker and Brehm each adding 10.  Baker also assisted on 45 of the 54 Sabre kills.

Marian closes out the season at home for Senior Day hosting UW-Oshkosh Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m.

--FightBlueFight--