Contact: Emily Zadny, Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7970
(written by Mike Prang, Athletic Communications Student Assistant)

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA (Duhawks.com) – Playing its first match on the road in eight matches, it took the Loras College Duhawks women's volleyball (11-3) team five sets to put away the Saint Mary's University Cardinals (6-5) on Friday night at the Mabel Lee Invitational, hosted by Coe College. 

The Duhawks took a 1-0 lead that was quickly tied up by the Cardinals after two sets. Loras then took the lead again 2-1, but Saint Mary's bounced back to defeat the Duhawks to send the match into set five. The fifth set became a nail bitter, but Loras was able to prevail and come away with the victory.

The Duhawks struggled at the beginning of the first set as the Cardinals jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead. Loras then grabbed a kill by Kendra Cave and then a service ace to bring the Saint Mary's lead to one. Cave picked up a block and three kills to help Loras take a 12-9 lead. The Cardinals came back to tie things up a 12-12, but Loras went on a 5-0 run to force a Saint Mary's timeout. Leading 23-20, the Duhawks came away with a set one win after Kayla Kinney had a kill just before an attack error by the Cardinals. Loras took set one 25-20.

Set two started as a back-and-forth battle as Loras and Saint Mary's were knotted at a 5-5 score. The Duhawks then went on another 5-0 to take a 10-5 lead, with the help of kills by Abby Allgeyer and Krystal Tranel. Saint Mary's turned up their defense and put a halt on the Loras scoring and eventually took an 18-17 lead with the help of back-to-back service aces. Loras was able to regain the lead and was leading 20-18, but the Cardinals went on a 7-0 scoring run to come away with a 25-20 victory.
The Duhawks and the Cardinals took things to an 8-8 tie in the third set with Saint Mary's serving. Allgeyer came away with a kill to take the lead which sparked the Loras offense to take a 20-10 lead. Kinney and Kelly Boge had kills during that run, but Moira Mixan's back-to-back service aces helped seal the deal. The Cardinals were able to cut the deficit to eight, but Loras finished the set on a 5-0 run to win 25-12.

The Cardinals came down to their final set when they silenced Loras by taking an 11-2 lead. The Duhawks had another kill by Cave and a service ace by Tranel to take the score to 11-4, but the Cardinals came back scoring. Trailing 15-4, Loras took a timeout to regroup which led to a small spark that brought the score to 18-8. The Cardinals scored on four out of the next five serves to lead 22-9, and eventually went on for force set five with a 25-13 win.

Playing to fifteen, the Duhawks jumped out to a 6-3 lead with the help of kills by Boge and Jackie Alberto. Saint Mary's showed signs of life and came back to take a 9-8 lead. Alberto and Boge struck again with a kill to keep the set within reach, but Loras still trailed 14-11. The Duhawks took a timeout to plan their comeback and executed it perfectly as Kinney came out of the huddle to rack up three kills and take a 15-14 lead to force a Saint Mary's timeout. After the timeout, Jessalyn Roling set the ball up to Alberto who spiked it down to win set five 16-14, and grab the Duhawk's 11th win of the season.

Kinney finished the match with a team high 15 kills. Roling and Tranel finished in double digits in digs, and Roling left the court with 42 assists. 

The Duhawks will play against Carleton College and St. Olaf College for the second day of the tournament tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.