Box Score BOX SCORE

LEWISTON, Idaho – The Westminster College women's volleyball team dropped a 3-2 decision at No. 14 Lewis-Clark State College on Friday night.  The match was the third straight by Westminster to go the full five sets.

With the 27-25, 26-28, 25-23, 19-25, 13-15 loss, Westminster is now 7-8 overall this season and 4-3 in the Frontier Conference.  Lewis-Clark State improves to 11-3 and 5-1.

Kenzie Mitchell and Ashley Marchant finished with 15 kills apiece while Stephanie Jones Morin added 11 kills.  Marchant hit .262 and added 17 digs and three service aces.  Mitchell had eight digs, four blocks and two aces.   Emily Atkinson posted 47 assists, nine digs and three aces while Kyndall Kordakis had 25 digs.

Westminster hit .179 as a team with 58 kills and nine service aces.  The Griffins added 83 digs and seven blocks.  LCSC finished with 73 kills and seven service aces while hitting .210.

Brianne Brown, Kelli Tikker and Nicole Graybeal finished with 16 kills apiece for the Warriors.  Lauryn Herrick added 11 kills and three service aces.  Tikker added 15 digs with Ali Hubert going for 27 digs.

Westminster won the first set 27-25 despite trailing the entire set until taking a 26-25 lead.  They were behind 24-21 before picking up consecutive kills from Marchant and forcing a hitting error by Nevena Dragovic of the Warriors to tie the set at 24-24.  After Vance missed a serve, the Griffins rattled off three straight points with a kill and back-to-back service aces by Mitchell.

Neither team would lead by more than two points throughout the entire second stanza.  LCSC scored three straight points to turn an 18-17 deficit into a 20-18 lead.  The Griffins would come back to hold a 23-21 advantage after another Vance service aces but, the Warriors would score three straight for the 24-23 lead.  After each team forced a side out in five consecutive rallies, LCSC won the set with kills from Coleman and Herrick.

The third set was also played within two points until the Griffins opened up a 24-20 advantage that was capped with a service ace from Atkinson.  After LCSC scored three straight points to get within 24-23, Westminster would get a kill from Marchant to claim the set for the Griffins.

The Warriors jumped out quick in the fourth frame and led 11-5 after a service aces from Dragovic.  Westminster would make a push to get back to 13-9 following a kill by Vance.  LCSC would respond with a 4-1 run to grow the lead to 17-10 and take control of the set.  The Griffins got within five points on two occasions but, they couldn't get closer than that.

It was the Griffins that started fast in the fifth set.  After trailing 2-1, the Griffins scored six of the next seven points to take a 7-3 lead as Mitchell recorded another kill.  LCSC would then go on a 9-3 run to force Westminster into a timeout trailing 12-10.  Following the timeout, Westminster got a kill from Marchant and a ball handling error on the Warriors to even the score at 12-12.  After each team scored to make the score 13-13, Graybeal notched a kill for LCSC and then teamed up with Herrick for a block and the 15-13 victory.

Westminster will return to action on Saturday when they face the College of Idaho at 2 p.m. in Caldwell, Idaho.