| 10.31.07 - Feeding
off the energy of a boisterous crowd, the Foresters almost had Indiana
Wesleyan and a second place finish in the conference in their grasp,
but came up just short losing 27-30, 30-27, 30-28, 25-30, 11-15.
In game one, HU had the Wildcats on the
ropes with a 26-22 lead when the Foresters' middle hitter, Kayley
Cervenka, went down with an injury. IWU took advantage of a deflated
HU squad and finished with an 8-1 run to claim the first game.
Games two and three were close
throughout with both games seeing a tie at 27. In both games, HU
made the plays down the stretch to take the 2-1 lead.
The Wildcats dominated game four
leading by as many as 12 at 25-13. In hopes of building momentum
for a fifth game, the Forester put together a 7-0 run to pull within
25-20, but could get no closer.
Game five was close early as they
played to a 7-7 tie. HU then committed a couple of hitting errors to
give IWU a little breathing room and that was all they needed to hold
off the Foresters for the win.
Brittney Smelser was a major catalyst
in HU's effort. She led the Foresters with 32 kills
and she added 17 digs and six aces. Natalie Villwock
contributed 12 kills and five blocks. Alyssa Schroeder dished out 61
assists and also chipped in five blocks and four aces. Stephanie Stearns led the team with 25
digs.
"We were very well prepared for
this match,"
said Coach Schroeder. "The players worked very hard to get ready.
When Kayley got hurt, Heidi Christner stepped in and did a fabulous
job for us."
With the loss, the
Foresters finish the conference season with a 5-3 record and are now
20-7 overall. They must await the outcome of this evening's St.
Francis/Bethel match to determine their seeding for next week's
conference tournament. A St. Francis win would put HU as the
third seed and a Bethel win would drop them to fourth. Either
way, they will host a first round game next Tuesday, November 6 at
7:00 p.m.
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