#8 Ferris State Falls Short In Comeback Attempt Versus #21 Winona State

Big Rapids, Mich. – Nationally eighth-ranked Ferris State battled back, but fell 3-1 to another highly-ranked opponent in the Winona State Warriors as the Bulldogs wrapped up their own Ferris State Invitational on Saturday (Sept. 3) inside the Ewigleben Sports Arena.

After a close 3-2 setback against 10th-ranked Minnesota-Duluth earlier on Saturday, the Bulldogs went down 25-23, 25-20, 23-25 and 25-21 in their second match with one of the nation's top teams in over the span of seven hours. Ferris State gutted out a third set victory to stay alive, but fell just short in the fourth as they tried to force a fifth set for the second time in one day.

Five Warriors tallied 10 or more kills, with Lauren Kudronowicz posting 16 while hitting .652 on the afternoon. Maria Wrage added 12 kills and hit .667 for the match to help bolster Winona State's .292 team attack percentage. Warrior setter McKenna Larsen led the match with 56 assists over the four sets and added seven kills.

Ferris State junior outside hitter Ayanna Buckley earned a season-best 16 kills and hit .361 for the contest. Buckley also tied for the team lead in total blocks with three. Junior middle hitter Maria Kronner added 11 kills with a .407 attack percentage while freshman outside hitter Allyson Cappel chipped in 10 kills of her own.

Sophomore outside hitter Katie Placek led all servers in the match with two service aces and anchored Ferris State defensively with a team-best 17 digs.

Senior Setter Stephanie Sikorski finished with 31 assists and tallied four kills for the match.

At the net, both teams played relatively even with Winona State registering eight total blocks to Ferris State's seven overall. Wrage had a match-high six total blocks for FSU.

Winona State struggled at the service stripe with 15 service errors compared to Ferris State, which had only had six.

After struggling through the first two sets, the Bulldogs broke out in the third set, hitting .368. The Warriors hit over .300 in every set but the second, and had at least 15 kills in every frame.

The loss dropped Ferris State to 1-3 on the season with all three setbacks coming against top 25-ranked foes.

The Bulldogs will head to the Palm Beach Volleyball Invitational next weekend in West Palm Beach (Fla.) where they'll open the tournament with the nation's 16th-ranked Washburn Ichabods on Friday (Sept. 9) at 12:30 p.m. (ET).