VOLLEYBALL

The HU volleyball team suffered a gut-wrenching road loss, 25-23, 20-25, 24-26, 25-18, 15-13, to Spring Arbor Wednesday night at the McDonald Athletic Center. The match was a dog fight that featured 42 ties and 13 lead changes and took nearly three hours to determine the winner.

The evening showcased come-from-behind wins on both sides with the Cougars having the final say by reeling off six straight points in the rubber match to turn their 13-9 deficit into a thrilling win. The third set featured HU’s comeback. On the wrong end of match point, 24-19, the Foresters played perfect volleyball to mount a memorable 26-24 win by scoring seven straight points.

Trevyn Terry had herself a day by posting a team-best 13 kills and four blocks. Haley Kruse also had a big night for her team by tallying ten kills, a team-leading 24 digs and three aces. Morgan Robrock littered the stat sheet too with 45 assists, 21 digs and seven kills.

Leah Carter added nine kills and 3.5 blocks. Kortney Grimm also logged nine kills to go along with 2.5 blocks and 15 digs. As a team, HU finished with 12 blocks. Defense on the backline saw the guests register 102 digs. In addition to Kruse, Robrock and Grimm recording double-digit digs, so did Layla Meyer with 16 and Makailah Thomspon with 12.

“This is the hardest way to lose,” said Coach Kelsey Herber. “While we have great moments, we need to focus on fundamental and mental consistency. When the game is on the line, I want us to be competitors who want the serve or attack to come to us and want the ball set to us when the game is on the line.

“This will be a hard match to go back and watch. However, we have to take a painful look at what went wrong so we can execute in the future.”

With this loss, HU drops to 14-11 overall which includes a 4-9 CL record. Next up is a trip to Taylor on Friday for a 7:00 p.m. match up with the Trojans.