DUBUQUE, Iowa – The University of Dubuque women's volleyball team's five game winning streak was snapped on Tuesday night at the hands of the Edgewood College Eagles in straight sets (22-25, 23-25, 22-25).
In the opening set, Edgewood would jump out to an early 3-6 lead before
Emma Powell would record back-to-back kills followed by an
Alexis Adkins kill of her own to even the set at 6-6. Edgewood was able to stretch their lead out again to as much as five, but the Spartans would fight their way back to within one after attack errors by Edgewood bringing them to within one at 17-18. Edgewood would then follow up with the next two points extending the Edgewood lead to three as head coach,
April Elsbernd called a timeout to regroup. The first set would go to Edgewood 22-25 as the Spartans had a few errors in the late stages of the set.
Powell, Adkins, and
Ashlee Adler each had three kills in the opening set.
Ashlyn McGinnis scored or assisted on all 13 kills in the set.
The Edgewood Eagles would grab the lead early in the second set 7-8 before the Spartans rallied off four straight points to take an 11-8 lead. Edgewood would come back to tie the set at 14-14 and even briefly lead before the Spartans got the lead back to 19-17 forcing Edgewood to call its first timeout of the match. Edgewood was able to score first out of the timeout, but Powell responded with a kill and a service ace to regain the three-point advantage. The Spartans would add a few key errors late down the stretch in the second set as Edgewood was able to come away with the 23-25 set win putting them up 2-0.
The Spartans battled in the must win third set rallying to the ball, but the ball was going in favor of Edgewood in the third set as they built a lead as big as 15-10. The Spartans got the Edgewood lead to as few as one, but were unable to put enough points together as the Spartans fell in the final set 22-25.
Powell led the Spartans with 12 kills and 16 digs as
Alexis Bedier was second on the team in kills with nine.
Payton Uptagraft and Adler each added six kills. McGinnis finished with 24 assists and coming off the bench
Alexis Kammerer added 12. The Spartans finished with an attacking percentage of .220.
The Spartans move to 13-5 overall and 1-0 in A-R-C on the season.
Up Next
The Spartans will be on the road over the weekend as they face Central College (14-3, 1-0) on Friday night and Simpson College (4-14, 0-1) on Saturday afternoon. With the Spartans currently sitting at 1-0 in conference play, they will be looking for two more wins to stay unbeaten and atop the conference standings.
