Lake Erie College

Painesville, Ohio - The Lake Erie College volleyball team finished on the wrong side of a tightly contested four-set affair against Slippery Rock University on Friday night at the Osborne Center. 

The Rock commanded the first set 25-18, but the next three sessions could easily have gone either way. However, it was the visitors who eked out a pair of 27-25 wins in the second and fourth sets, with LEC winning the third, 25-19. 

Junior Allison Kirch led the way with 23 kills, while Sadie Nawrocki and Nora Larson also had double-digit finishes with 13 and 10, respectively. Kylie Anderson had the Storm offense in system with 55 assists to go along with a pair of aces. 

Defensively, Cecelia Mullen led the back row with 27 digs, while the front line totaled nine blocks in the setback. Kennedy Stewart (5), and Sadie Nawrocki (4) were the top deniers at the net as they combined for nine block assists. 

No more than three points separated the two foes in the second set and it appeared as if the Storm were going to even the match 1-1 with a 23-20 lead in hand. LEC had set point at 24-23, and again at 25-24, but three straight SRU points that were capped off by a Storm error gave them the 2-0 advantage.

However, Lake Erie didn't let the heartbreak rattle them, erasing an early 9-9 tie before with a 10-1 run that featured four kills from Kirch to leave little doubt in the eventual outcome of the stanza. 

The Storm found themselves in an early hole in set four before clawing their way back into the battle. After trailing by as many as five, a Kirch kill evened the count at 17-17 and two more finishes from Ni'yah Fuggs and Stewart had the Storm out in front by a pair. 

Much like the second Lake Erie led 23-20 in the closing moments, but SRU fended off a pair of set points before ultimately finishing off the victory to move to 2-0 on the day after beating Point Park earlier. 

Lake Erie will play two more matches tomorrow, first against Seton Hill at 11 AM before battling Point Park at 3 p.m.