SAN ANTONIO; Texas - The Pirate women's volleyball team was defeated in the opening round of the SCAC Conference tournament, falling to a dangerous Centre College team on Friday night. The loss dropped the nationally-ranked Southwestern team into the loser's bracket and, after winning out on Saturday, in fifth place in the conference.

Southwestern faced a hot Centre team and won game one easily but then fell in the second and third set. The Pirates outlasted the Colonels in game four, winning 30-28 to force the decisive game five. Centre took the fifth set 15-12 to win the contest and upset the defending champion, Pirates.

Centre hit .211 as a team while Southwestern hit .191, led by Lindsay Thompson's 22 kills.

SU returned to the team of old on day two, not losing a game in the two matches. They got off to a slow start against Rhodes in the first match winning 25-21 in game one before rolling to the victory with 25-13 and 25-17 game two and three wins.

Allison Stubbs led the attack with 10 kills and was also the dig leader with 14. As a team SU hit an impressive .284 during the match.

Their final match of the tournament was against Millsaps College for fifth place. Southwestern easily handled the Majors as they didn't allow more than 19 points in any game, winning 25-17, 25-19, 25-16. Thompson and Lauren Brown led the way with 10 kills each.

Southwestern will now play the waiting game to see if they recieve an at large bid to the national tournament. They currently sit at 31-6 on the year and were #18 in the nation in the last AVCA poll. Selections are announced at the beginning of next week.