DUBUQUE, Iowa – The University of Dubuque women's volleyball team began the UD River City Classic on Friday night inside Stoltz Sports Center against the North Central College (Ill.) Cardinals. The Spartans would be edged out by the Cardinals in five sets (22-25, 25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 12-15).
The Spartans would start out set one on an 8-2 run before the Cardinals would climb their way back to take the set by three 22-25.
Darby Hawtrey had over half of the Spartans kills in the opening set with seven. In a pivotal set two to avoid going down 0-2, the Spartans went point for point with the Cardinals in a set that had 11 ties and eight lead changes before building a 19-16 lead forcing the Cardinals to take a timeout. The Spartans would not render the lead the rest of way to even the match 1-1.
Both the Cardinals and the Spartans continued the back-and-forth battle through set three before being knotted at 20-20 heading to the first timeout of the set. The Spartans would come out of the timeout scoring the first two points ultimately to then win the third set 25-22. Spartans would run out to a 5-0 lead in the beginning of the fourth set before the Cardinals surged ahead 14-13. The Spartans would be unable to retake the lead in the set as the Cardinals forced a winner take all fifth set. The final set would start in favor of the Cardinals as they lead early 8-4. Just as it felt like the Cardinals were going to walk out with the victory, the Spartans stormed back to take a 12-10 lead to force the Cardinals into a timeout. The Cardinals timeout would pay off as they tallied five straight points to take the fifth set and the victory 2-3.
Hawtrey ended her night with a team-high 16 kills on 30 attacks (.467) and
Emma Powell followed with 12 kills. Freshman setter,
Maegan Brylski assisted her attackers 29 times throughout the contest and
Ashlee Adler had 18 digs. In the loss, the Spartans had an attacking percentage of .250 and recorded 49 total assists.
UP NEXT
UD River City Classic Saturday Schedule
10:00 a.m. North Central vs Knox
12:00 p.m. North Central vs Wis. Lutheran
2:00 p.m. UD vs Knox
4:00 p.m. UD vs Wis. Lutheran
