GEORGETOWN, Texas - The Pirates opened Saturday with one of their toughest opponents so far this season, #10 Elmhurst College, and rose to the challenge but were narrowly defeated 3-2.
Just as expected it was a fast-paced, back and forth match in the first set. Elmhurst was able to pull away just enough late in the set to take an early 1-0 lead, 25-19.
Southwestern dominted set two early, jumping out to a 7-1 lead and extending it further to 18-8 by outhustling the Blue Jays and with big swings offensively. Despite the huge deficit, Elmhurst came storming back to pull within 24-17, but after a well-placed timeout by Head Coach Hannah Long, the Pirates secured the set two win on the next play with a huge swing from Kaitlyn Foster.
Elmhurst took an early lead in the third set, but the Pirates battled through a few errors to pull even once again, 11-11. EC orchestrated another run, however, to put the Pirates down by three, 14-11, midway through the set.
Once again, Coach Long's timeout did the trick as the Pirates rattled off five straight points to take a 16-14 lead, forcing an Elmhurst timeout to stop the run. The timeout was ineffective as Southwestern continued to push points and went up by five 20-15.
The Pirates made quick work of the five points they needed to secure the win, allowing just one Blue Jay point en route to the 25-16 set three win.
Elmhurst came out on the attack to start the fourth set and pounded the Pirates to lead 9-4. SU struggled to find a rhythm and Elmhurst pressed on to extend their lead to nine, 15-6.
Even with the hard-hitting fire power of Kirby Kincannon at the net, Southwestern just couldn't make up enough ground and dropped the fourth set, 25-17.
Nikki Welch served three straight points for the Pirates to start the fifth and final set. Her serves included an ace and a huge block from Kincannon and Foster.
With a small lead in hand Welch took over service and started things off with a huge ace. Abbie Robb's kill down the line put the Pirates within three points of taking the set 12-8.
Elmhurst's heavy hitters got back to work as they closed the gap to tie the game 13-13 before eventually taking the set 15-13 and match 3-2.
Elmhurst led with 69 kills with 30 coming from Sam Szarmach on just 69 attempts for a .391 attack percentage. Kincannon led the Pirates with 16 of SU's 65 digs. Robb added in 15 and Pool 13. Welch had 44 assists and Chandler Lentz led with 24 digs.
The Pirates fall to 13-7 on the year while Elmhurst improves to an impressive 20-2. SU will face Hardin-Simmons University later today with an anticipated game time set for 3:30 p.m.
