ATLANTA, Georgia - Southwestern volleyball faced their toughest weekend to date, taking on three teams ranked in the top twelve in the nation according to the American Volleyball Coaches Association, and dropped three of the four contests.
SU opened with #7 California Lutheran on Friday afternoon. After taking the first set 25-22, the Pirates were narrowly defeated in the following three matches 25-23, 25-27, 27-25 to fall 3-1. Allison Stubbs led with 11 kills while Olivia Drummond posted nine and a .471 attack percentage. Chandler Lentz recorded a team high 22 digs while Lorin Froetschel posted four blocks in the loss.
After the tough defeat the Pirates had to turn around and immediately face a fresh Millsaps College squad. The teams alternated sets with SU taking sets two and four and Millsaps capturing sets one and three to force a fifth set. It was a dog-fight the entire way but the Majors eventually snuck ahead and got the best of the Pirates, winning 16-14.
Kaitlyn Foster posted 12 kills to lead offensively while Lacey Strickland had 30 assists. Macey Pool led defensively with 22 digs and Foster also had a team high five aces.
Day two pitted the Pirates against #12 Christopher Newport. Southwestern dropped the first set 23-25 but quickly rebounded with three straight set wins, 25-21, 25-23, 25-14, to win 3-1. Stubbs once again led with 18 kills while Abbie Robb was huge with a .421 attack percentage on her 11 kills on 19 attempts.
Southwestern closed the weekend with their toughest competition, tournament host #2 Emory. The Pirates were up to the challenge but were just narrowly defeated in the first set 28-26 despite hitting just .023 percent as a team. SU turned things in their favor with a huge set two win, easily tying the match with a 25-15 set win. The Pirates weren't able to hold the momentum as they were edged out in the third set 28-26 before dropping the fourth set 25-17.
Foster had 10 kills in the match while Robb and Meredith Rollins both added in nine. As a team the Pirates were held to just .064 attack percentage for the match. Lorin Froetschel had a big game at the net, racking up nine blocks to set a new record for blocking assists and tying the record for total blocks in a five game set. Froetschel owned the previous record for blocking assists, set almost exactly one year ago against Emory.
Foster was selected to the All-Tournament team for her outstanding play over the weekend.
Southwestern falls to 8-4 on the year after the weekend and open SCAC conference play this weekend in Kerrville, Texas. SU opens the cross divisional with conference rival Trinity on Friday night at 4 p.m.