Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324

Box Score

Oct. 16, 2019 – Continuing to struggle in College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) play, the North Central College women's volleyball team suffered a 3-0 loss to Carroll University on Wednesday, opening a five-match homestand inside Gregory Arena.

Squaring off against one of the premier defensive teams in the conference, Carroll entered the evening leading the CCIW in blocks and showed it again on Wednesday, as the Cardinals were blocked a season-high 12 times during the match.

A back-and-forth first set saw the score knotted 23-23, as a Sarah Geosling kill and Pioneer attack error evened the score while forcing a Carroll timeout.  That timeout killed any momentum the Cardinals had, as consecutive kills from Kylie Mueller and Sydney Watkins ended the opener 25-23 in favor of the Pioneers despite the Cardinals holding a 15-10 advantage in kills.

The Cardinal attack went silent in set two, committing 10 errors to seven kills, hitting -.086 to drop the second set 25-15.

North Central (5-19, 0-6 CCIW) held an 11-8 advantage early in the third set, but a 7-1 Carroll run proved to be the pivotal run of the match as the Pioneers did not surrender the lead the rest of the way en route to a 25-21 third-set final.

The Cardinals finished with 34 kills to Carroll's 33, but were plagued by 28 attack errors on the evening while the Pioneers committed just eight.

Nine kills from each of Geosling and Kaitlyn Boelter-Eberhardt led all players, while Maya Bryant handed out a match-high 24 assists.  12 digs from Lexi Barry and another 10 from Katelynn Kuehl led the North Central defense.

Erika Dunnam paced the Pioneer (12-11, 2-3 CCIW) offense with eight kills, while Kylie Mueller tallied seven.  Defensively, MacKenzie Olson led all players with eight block assists and one solo, while Sam Penzkowski finished with a match-high 16 digs.

North Central will host the 18^th-annual Tiffany Robinson Memorial Tournament from Oct. 18-19, opening play on Friday against Nebraska Wesleyan University at 7 p.m.  Links to live in-match coverage and the full tournament schedule are available at the tournament webpage HERE.

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