KENOSHA, Wis. - The Gannon women's volleyball dropped a pair of contests in the opening day of the Wisconsin-Parkside Tournament on Friday at the DeSimone Gymnasium. Gannon fell in the opening match of the day to Lewis, 3-1, before being swept by host Wisconsin-Parkside, 3-0. The Lady Knights even their record at 2-2 overall and 0-0 in the PSAC.
In the opening match of the day, the Lady Knights fell to Lewis (2-3) in four sets, 25-20, 20-25, 25-18, and 25-19. The Lady Knights were swept in their second match of the day 25-23, 25-14 and 25-22 by host Wisconside-Parkside (4-2).
"Today we were not quite up to the task against some tough competition. Unfortunately, I made some coaching mistakes late in the match tonight, preventing us from having the chance to go to a fourth set with Parkside," said head coach
Matt Darling. "I'm obviously not happy that we lost twice today, but there are some things that were encouraging.
Hannah Kren continues to play at a very high level for us, we started to block a little better as the day went on, and
Megan Wendel set a good match tonight despite our low hitting percentage."
Gannon managed to hold the lead over Lewis until the Flyers scored three straight to tie the contest at 14-14. The Flyers continued take control of the set by adding four consecutive points to take an 18-14 lead. The Lady Knights made a late run off three serves by junior
Maggie Desrosiers (Uniontown, Ohio/Hoover) to pull within three, 23-20. Following a timeout by Lewis, the Flyers went onto secure the opening set victory over Gannon, 25-20.
The Lady Knights rebounded in the second set off an early 9-5 lead with junior
Megan Wendel (Aurora, Ohio/Defiance) at the service line. Freshman
Hannah Kren (Waukesha, Wis. / Wisconsin Lutheran) capitalized on a pair of kills in the Lady Knights' lead. The Wisconsin native gave the Lady Knights the 25-20 win on a kill set by Wendel.
Falling behind early, Gannon erased Lewis' lead with nine consecutive points to take a 13-7 advantage. Five of the Lady Knights' nine points came off attack errors on serves by freshman
Jordyn Thiery (Cincinnati, Ohio / McAuley). Lewis would go on a 9-3 run before tying the set at 16-16. Lewis went on a pair of four-point rallies en route to capturing the third set, 25-18.
For the second consecutive set, Lewis rebounded from a Gannon lead before knotting the set at 16-16. With each team battling through the next four points, Lewis took a 19-18 lead in the set before finishing off the Lady Knights with a 25-19 win and a match win.
Wendel finished the opening match with 32 assists, 14 digs and three kills. Kren registered a career-high 15 kills, 11 digs, two assists and one block.
Gannon and Wisconsin-Parkside battled through the entire opening set in the Lady Knights' second match. Until the the final two points of the set, the Lady Knights and Rangers tied the contest a combined 14 times. With the score tied at 22-22, the Rangers took the lead off a Gannon attack error. The host Rangers tallied three of the final four points before capturing a 25-23 win.
Jumping out to an early lead over the Lady Knights in set two, the Rangers managed to gain a 13-point edge over Gannon, 21-8. To close out the set, Gannon collected five of their six final points on Rangers' errors. The host Rangers finished the set with a 25-14 win.
In the third set, Wisconsin-Parkside finished the sweep of the Lady Knights, 25-22. Facing an eight-point deficit, Gannon rallied within one point of the Rangers late in the set. With the Rangers holding a 23-20 lead, the Lady Knights collected a pair of points off Rangers' errors before a kill and service ace gave the host the final set, 25-22.
Wendel collected 19 assists and three kills, while Kren posted eight kills and seven digs. The Lady Knights posted 6.5 blocks in the match despite the loss.
Gannon returns to action Saturday, Sept. 14 at the Wisconsin-Parkside Tournament with a pair of contests versus Upper Iowa at noon and the University of Indianapolis at 2:30 p.m.
