TIFFIN, Ohio – For a third straight match, Ohio Dominican's volleyball team struck first, but the Panthers again faltered late as they fell 3-2 (25-17, 25-19, 16-25, 18-25, 8-15) at Tiffin Tuesday night in GLIAC play.

The Panthers, who had early leads against Wayne State and Saginaw Valley over the weekend before suffering defeats, have gone the distance in five of their first 14 matches and are now 3-2 in five-set matches. Overall, ODU is 7-7 (2-3 GLIAC) after its third consecutive setback.

ODU had 31 kills in the first two sets, but managed just 24 over the final three frames, failing to hit above .129 in any of the last three sets.

Freshman Kelly Nadler (Leipsic, Ohio) had 16 kills while hitting .333 and junior Jackie Oestreich (Brighton, Mich.) added 13 terminations. Freshman Anna Ficker (Cincinnati, Ohio) had a season-high 27 digs and sophomore Ciara Ralston (Findlay, Ohio) also had a season-best with 23 digs.

ODU had 18 kills in the first set alone, using an 11-1 run to grab a 14-6 lead. Nadler had four kills during that stretch and Ralston had three as the Dragons (7-4, 4-1 GLIAC) never drew closer than seven points in the set.

The Panthers trailed 11-8 in the second set, but scored six straight points to take a 14-11 lead. Tiffin scored twice to cut it to 14-13, but ODU responded with five straight points, capped off by a kill by junior Taylor Foster (Ida, Mich.) to take control.

ODU never led in the third set, though, and saw Tiffin score seven straight points to take a 20-11 lead in the fourth set. In the fifth set, the Dragons scored the first seven points to essentially put the match away.

Senior Kelsey Fortney (Lorain, Ohio) notched a season-best 28 assists and freshman Jordan Jaeckin (Olmsted Falls, Ohio) added a season-high 20 assists as well for ODU.

Ohio Dominican returns to action at 7 p.m. Friday at Grand Valley State.

Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu