Coach Long knew what kind of competition her club would face while at their first tournament in Ada, OH. Getting a taste of what playing fellow nationally ranked programs is like was a big reason she scheduled the trip. The Pirates got a good idea and played hard during the weekend but dropped three of the four contests to fall to 2-3 on the season.

On Friday, Southwestern started off against a Thomas More team that is quickly making its mark on the national scene. After taking every other game during the match the Pirates buckled down in the fifth and final game and emerged with the win 3-2 (25-20, 18-25, 24-26, 25-18, 15-11).    

The Pirates then moved on to Heidelberg and fell 3-1 (24-26, 23-25, 25-19, 20-25).  

Saturday was the toughest day of competition yet for the Pirates as they opened the day with the fourth-ranked team in the nation, host school Ohio Northern. SU narrowly lost the first match falling 22-25 and then again were just points from taking game two 23-25. After the tough losses the Pirates couldn't find their rhythm again and fell 10-25 in game three.

For the final game of the tournament the Pirates took on Calvin, who is home to the 2008 Freshman-of-the-Year, and lost a heartbreaker in five sets, 3-2. Southwestern dropped the first set 22-25 and then rebounded to take game two and three 25-23 and 25-17, respectively. SU dropped the fourth game 25-14 and then narrowly fell in game five 12-15 to drop their third match of the weekend.

Southwestern was led on the weekend by Lindsay Thompson (pictured) who had 42 kills on 87 attempts with only 9 errors for a .379 hitting percentage. She was also the blocks leader with five solo and 15 assisted blocks. Gentry followed with 34 kills. Sophomore Taylor Wright followed in blocks with two solo and seven assisted and Rachel Thibodeau had one solo block and 11 assisted.

The Pirates travel to Seguin, TX on Wednesday to take on a strong ASC school in Texas Lutheran University. Game is slated to begin at 7:00 pm.