FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 17, 2008

Lions drop five set match at Southwest Baptist

Box Score

Bolivar, Mo. -- Despite out blocking Southwest Baptist and receiving a season-high 33 digs from Ashley Hill, the Missouri Southern volleyball team lost in five sets tonight at SBU, Individual set scores were 17-25, 25-20, 24-26, 25-18, 15-8.

Southern (6-16, 1-9 MIAA) won convincingly in the first set, hitting .444 and limiting SBU to just .194. The Lions took a 4-3 lead on a kill from Ashlee Russell and would not trail the rest of the set.

SBU (11-11, 3-6 MIAA) took the second set in a much tighter contest that saw seven tied scores and six lead changes.

The third set went extra points, before a kill from Elin Skei put the Lions up 25-24 and a ball handling error for SBU gave Southern the 2-1 match lead.

Neither team hit well in the fourth set and the Lions had a 17-15 lead after a kill from Brittany Vavao-Huggins, but the Bearcats closed the set on a 10-1 run. The Lions had just two kills in the fifth and deciding set as SBU hit .421 to take the match.

Hill was one dig off her career high, finishing with 33 on the night to go with five kills. Russell hit .448 with 15 kills, while Jeanna Feldman and Huggins had 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Skei was one dig away from her first collegiate double-double with 23 assists and nine digs, while Kari Hammerbacher had 22 digs.

The Lions will be back in action on October 22 when they play host to Nebraska-Omaha at 7 pm in Young Gymnasium.