Box Score
Box Score

The Tiger volleyball team came up on the short end of a see-saw battle at Missouri Southern on Friday evening (Oct. 8). Tied 12-12 in the final set, Missouri Southern rallied for the final three points to take the match on their home floor, stopping a three-match winning streak by FHSU. The Lions won the first, third and fifth sets, while FHSU took sets two and four. FHSU is now 12-8 overall and 1-5 in the MIAA, while Missouri Southern moved to 4-13 overall and 2-3 in the MIAA.

Errors were costly for the Tigers all night, especially in the sets won by the Lions. Missouri Southern won 14 points in the first set alone off of errors by the Tigers (8 hitting, 2 service, 2 blocking, 1 ball handling, 1 receiving). Despite all the errors, the Tigers still only lost the set by two points, 25-23.

The Tigers overcame 10 of their own errors in the second set with 14 kills to edge the Lions 26-24. Kylee Hoagland led the Tigers with four kills, hitting .800 for the set, part of her 14-kill performance for the evening.

FHSU produced its best attack percentage in a set in the third, hitting .206, but 12 more errors (5 hitting, 3 service, 2 receiving, and 2 ball handling) were costly in a 25-21 setback.

FHSU used 17 kills in the fourth set to win 25-20 and force the final set, but it could have been a larger margin as they gave the Lions 11 points off errors in the set.

The teams engaged in a see-saw fifth set that saw the Tigers go on a four-point run to go up 10-8, but they could not sustain that momentum as the Lions reeled off three straight points to go up 11-10. The teams traded points until tied at 12-12, but the Lions rallied for three straight points with a kill and then two straight attacking errors by the Tigers to close out the match.

Overall, Fort Hays State committed 55 errors (31 hitting, 8 service, 6 receiving, 5 blocking, and 5 ball handling). Allowing over two sets worth of points to the Lions off errors was too much to overcome, despite outhitting the Lions in the match .171 to .135 and producing 18 more digs, 89 to 71. Missouri Southern was nearly as bad with mistakes made, committing 49 errors overall in the match.

Sara Hewson led FHSU with 16 kills on the evening. Hoagland had 14 and Jenna Ulrich also reached double figures with 11. Kayla Zoglman had 48 assists. Camille Hubert led the defensive effort with 29 digs, followed by Tracie Hileman with 26.

The Tigers look to rebound from the tough loss on Sunday when they host Pittsburg State in Hays. The Tigers also suffered a five-set heartbreaker at Pittsburg State earlier this year and look to avenge the loss. Fort Hays State has now played six five-set matches this year and have a record of 3-3 in the marathon affairs. Fort Hays State plays its next five matches at home, looking to avenge earlier MIAA losses this year in the first two with Pittsburg State and Missouri Western.