HAYS, Kan. – Fort Hays State fell to No. 12 ranked Central Missouri in straight sets on Friday evening (Oct. 23). The Tigers had three set point opportunities in the first set, but fell 32-30, before dropping the next two sets 25-14 and 25-19. The Tigers moved to 13-11 overall and 4-7 in the MIAA, while the Jennies moved to 20-3 overall and 8-2 in the MIAA.
 
Fort Hays State trailed 24-22 in the first set before kills by Rebekah Spainhour and Crystal Whitten made it a win-by-two scenario. FHSU fended off another set point with a kill by Megan Anderson and then had three consecutive chances to put the opening set away. A calm and resilient UCM team thwarted every opportunity with solid defense and eventually pulled out the set 32-30.
 
FHSU remained close in the second set to the point where UCM led 12-11, but then the wheels came off and the Tigers never recovered. UCM went on a 10-0 burst that included five errors by the Tigers. The Jennies won the set by 11. UCM used efficient offense in the third set to put the Tigers away, hitting .378. That upped the Jennies' hitting percentage to .325 for the match. FHSU hit just .134.
 
Mallory Flagor led the Tigers in kills with 11, while Whitten added nine and Spainhour had seven. Hannah Wagy had 33 assists and Kailey Klibbe had a team-high 20 digs.
 
Carly Sojka led the Jennies with 13 kills, while Maddie Jones added 11. The Tigers had no answer for setter Kourtney Thompson, who picked up nine kills by dumping balls over the net to go with her 37 assists. She hit .750 in the match. Annie Reilly was a defensive machine for UCM, recording 25 digs.
 
The Tigers return to action on Saturday afternoon (Oct. 24) against Lindenwood at Gross Memorial Coliseum. Match time is set for 2 pm.