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Box Score 2 Chicago, Illinois – The No. 9 Transylvania volleyball team endured its first losses of the season on Saturday, coming up short against a pair of nationally-ranked teams at the Ratner Athletics Center on the campus of the University of Chicago.
Competing over the weekend at the University of Chicago Classic, Transylvania went toe-to-toe with the No. 15 Millikin University Big Blue before falling in the fifth set, 25-23, 17-25, 20-25, 28-26, 10-15 for its first loss of the season. The Pioneers' attempt to rebound in the evening was foiled by the tournament host No. 16 University of Chicago Maroons, who doused the Pioneers in four sets.
Transylvania dropped to 5-2 on the year as the two AVCA Top 25 opponents prevailed against the budding Pioneers.
Five different Pioneers registered double-digit kills in Saturday's afternoon opener, led by Kaetlin Ethington's 12 kills. Fellow freshman Cate Scheper sent home 11 kills while Karrington Jackson, Madison Sweeney, and Suzanne Klosterman each provided 10 kills apiece. Grace Ward tallied a season-best 44 assists as the Pioneers came up just short in the marathon battle with Millikin.
Transylvania delivered an inspired set one victory against Millikin, erasing a 20-19 deficit behind scores from Scheper, Jackson, and Sweeney to grab a 22-20 upper hand. Jackson delivered the final kill to secure the opening set win for the Pioneers.
Millikin countered with towering wins in the second and third set, and aspired to close the match in four as the Big Blue assembled a 21-18 lead. But following a Transylvania timeout, the Pioneers went on a 5-1 run to clinch a 23-22 lead. The Big Blue served for match point at 24-23, 25-24, and 26-25, but Scheper answered again with a timely kill, and Klosterman followed suit with successive kills for the Pioneers to forge a 26-26 thriller. The Big Blue failed to return for the Pioneers 27th point and Kayden Holcomb punctuated the comeback with a set-clinching ace to force a deciding set.
Millikin used a 5-0 run early in the fifth set to assert a lead it would lean on the rest of the way to hand the Pioneers their first defeat of the fall 2021 season.
The Pioneers sought a different result against Chicago in the evening and fielded an impressive start by erasing an early Maroon lead to surge ahead at 11-10 following a Scheper kill, one of seven in the first set by the freshman. Scheper rose again with another putaway to lift the Pioneers to a 14-11 advantage. The Pioneers would maintain the lead the rest of the way as Holcomb registered the final three points to hand the first set to the Pioneers, 25-22.
Chicago made the big plays down the stretch in the second set, breaking up a 21-21 game by scoring four of the final five points in the set, knotting up the match at 1-1. The Maroons rode the momentum to a 25-14 third set victory and replicated the result in the fourth set as the Pioneers were plagued by errors over the final two frames.
Scheper finished Saturday with a career-high 19 kills to go with four digs. Ward paced the offense with 34 assists, 11 digs, and four kills to pair with a team-best .250 attacking percentage. Miller led all players on the night with 25 digs patrolling the back line.
Transylvania rounds out its trip to the Windy City tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. eastern time with a contest versus the Concordia-Wisconsin Falcons at the Ratner Athletics Center.
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