FHSU Sports Information Department
Fort Hays State Volleyball fell twice on Saturday (Sept. 5) at the Wildcat Open in Marquette, Mich., hosted by Northern Michigan University. After a win in the season opener on Friday, the Tigers have now dropped three straight and sit at 1-3 overall.
Upper Iowa 3, Fort Hays State 0
Fort Hays State fell by just two points in the opening set against Upper Iowa, but could not recover in a straight set loss. Upper Iowa took the match by scores of 26-24, 25-22, and 25-19.
The Tigers fell behind 5-0 in the first set before slowly crawling back. With Upper Iowa leading 13-9, the Tigers went on a 6-0 run to take a 15-13 lead. Crystal Whitten had a pair of kills and Morgan McKean had a service ace in the run, coupled with three hitting errors by UIU. FHSU went on to lead by three twice at 19-16 and 20-17 on kills by Rebekah Spainhour, then led 23-20 after a kill from Whitten. But the Peacocks stormed right back with a pair of kills and a hitting error by the Tigers to tie the set 23-23. The Peacocks eventually came up with the final two points on a kill and a Tiger attacking error to win 26-24.
FHSU never led the rest of the match, trailing by as many as seven in the second set and nine in the third set. The Tigers hit less than .100 in the first and third sets and finished the match at .127. Upper Iowa was under .200 in the first and third sets, but hit a strong .316 in the second set. The Peacocks hit .210 overall for the match.
Mallory Flagor led the Tigers with 11 kills, while Whitten added 10. Hannah Wagy had 26 assists and Azlyn Cassaday and Whitten tied with a team-high 12 digs.
Northern Michigan 3, Fort Hays State 2
Fort Hays State let the opportunity to finish with a weekend split slip through their hands in the second match on Saturday. The Tigers took a 2-0 lead in their match with tournament host Northern Michigan, only to see the home team rally for three straight sets. Northern Michigan took the match 23-25, 20-25, 25-14, 25-21, 15-8.
The Tigers held on for the first set win. FHSU led 24-20 before seeing NMU rally for three straight points, but Rebekah Spainhour ended the home team’s hopes with a kill. In the second set FHSU rallied for eight straight points after trailing 15-12 to take a 20-15 lead. FHSU cruised to closing out the set on consecutive kills by Spainhour and Azlyn Cassaday.
Northern Michigan started its comeback by getting ahead of FHSU by five points early in the third, then methodically pulled away for an 11-point win. FHSU was in good shape leading by four at 10-6 in the fourth before NMU took nine of the next 15 points to tie the set 15-15. FHSU led 20-18, then NMU rallied for five straight points to take a 23-20 lead. The Wildcats took two of the final three points to win by four.
The Wildcats used the momentum to take command early with a 5-1 lead in the decisive set and eventually led 10-2 before closing the Tigers out by seven.
Kayla Chosa had 14 of her game-high 21 kills over the final three sets for Northern Michigan. With just three errors, she hit a scorching .514 in the match.
Rebekah Spainhour had a big match for the Tigers, putting down 17 kills with just four errors to hit .394. Crystal Whitten added 11 kills, but with nine errors, hit just .053. Hannah Wagy produced 39 assists and Mallory Flagor had a team-high 13 digs followed by Taylor Denney with 12.
Northern Michigan hit .221 for the match, while the Tigers hit .148.
The Tigers return to action next week in Oklahoma at the Tiger/Savage Storm Classic, held in both Durant and Ada, Okla. The Tigers will be in Durant for their first two matches on Friday (Sept. 11) and then Ada for their final two matches on Saturday (Sept. 12).