#8 Ferris State Falls In Five-Set Heartbreaker To #10 Minnesota-Duluth

Big Rapids, Mich. - The nationally eighth-ranked Ferris State women's volleyball team fell 3-2 to the nation's 10th-ranked Minnesota-Duluth in a "Battle of the Bulldogs" thriller on Saturday (Sept. 3) inside the Ewigleben Sports Arena.

Ferris State went down 25-22, 23-25, 25-17, 22-25, 16-14 to the UMD Bulldogs, but routinely erased deficits to stay in the contest.

FSU gutted out the second and fourth sets to force a fifth frame, but fell behind 7-0 in the match's final frontier. Within minutes, though, Ferris State pulled even at 10-9 and led 12-11 just moments later.

FSU could not hang on as Minnesota-Duluth forced a 14-14 deadlock and Ferris State dropped the match ultimately two points later.

UMD controlled the third set, hitting .364 overall, but had to fend off FSU's charges in each of the other four sets.

Junior middle hitter Maria Kronner for FSU was a force at the net, hitting .300 for the match with 13 kills and eight total blocks, including three solo blocks. Sophomore outside hitter Katie Placek finished with 11 kills and led Ferris State with 14 digs.

The FSU Bulldogs out-blocked the UMD Bulldogs 14.5 to nine in the match, as six from Ferris State had multiple block assists. Redshirt junior middle hitter Aspen Stuedemann led everyone in the match with six block assists.

Ferris State senior setter Stephanie Sikorski had 42 assists, and was outdone slightly by UMD's Emily Torve, who recorded 55 in the grueling match.

UMD had five players record 10 or more kills, with Sarah Kelly pacing the pack with 17 on the afternoon. Allison Olley had 13 kills and hit .400 for UMD while Sydnie Mauch, Makenzie Morgen and Taylor Wissbroecker each tallied 10 kills.

For the match, UMD hit .205 to FSU's .177 mark. Ferris State had eight service aces to Minnesota-Duluth's seven, but the host Bulldogs lost the service error battle 13-10.

Defensively Minnesota-Duluth's Erin Schindler totaled a match-high 20 digs, as the visitors finished with 30 more digs (78-48) than Ferris State.

The see-saw affair featured 34 tie scores and 15 lead changes.

With the loss, Ferris State fell to 1-2 overall in its own home invitational to date.

Ferris State has a chance to rebound when they take on the nationally 21st-ranked Winona State Warriors to wrap up the season-opening invitational on Saturday (Sept. 3) starting at 5 p.m. (ET) inside the Ewigleben Sports Arena.