VOLLEYBALL

Going toe-to-toe with their second ranked opponent in as many outings, the HU volleyball team went up against 26th-ranked Saint Francis Friday evening to suffer a 3-1 loss, 25-20, 25-18, 29-31, 25-15, to the visiting Cougars.

USF (13-5) has established themselves as one of the early front runners in the league. They currently sit second in the standings with a 5-1 record behind IWU who remains undefeated in CL play at 5-0. The Foresters carry an 8-8 overall record, 2-4 record in conference action.

The opening set was up for grabs as it featured seven ties, the last at 19-19, before the visitors rattled off four straight points on the way to an early lead. They carried that swagger into set two to double up the score on Huntington, 20-10, before the Foresters rallied back to keep things interesting. While HU couldn’t salvage the set, they had a new spirt about them in set three where they scratched and clawed to eke out the win

Herber’s crew had to withstand 16 ties and four lead changes in the battle with their neighbor to the northeast before finally claiming the 31-29 win but any momentum gained from the nail-bitter didn’t carry over into set four as the Cougars jumped out to a 12-5 advantage and never really looked back.

“The way our girls fought in set three was inspiring,” said Coach Herber. “If we play with that same energy and mental toughness every single point of every single set we play moving forward, it will take this team to a whole new level.”

Paige Eakright and Tya Bynum carried the offensive load for the Foresters with 11 and ten kills respectively. Eakright was also active defensively as evidenced by her 12 digs. She was one of three Foresters to finish with double-digit digs as Ariene Butler tallied 19 and Laura Nagle added ten.

The Foresters had one of their finest nights at the net defensively to finish with a season-tying seven blocks behind two from Lindsay Ingenito. Eakright and Megan Horton also got in on the action with 1.5 blocks each.

Jennings Tacosik handed out 31 assists to go along with two aces. As a team, HU committed just five service errors to USF’s 11.

“If we play like we did tonight but pair it with vocal enthusiasm every single point, tomorrow will be a great match against Spring Arbor,” noted Herber.

In addition to the optimism about her team, the HU skipper is also quick to praise her assistants. “I enjoyed having all three of my assistant coaches present tonight. Their knowledge of the game and ability to motivate our players is a constant reminder of how thankful I am for this staff.”

The Foresters are back in Platt Arena tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. to host Spring Arbor.