With heavy competition in the Hawaiian Invitational, the Fort Hays State Tigers came back to Hays without a win.
In their first game, the Tigers managed to win a match before dropping the contest 3-1 (26-28, 25-22, 25-23, 25-14).
[raw][quote_right] The Tigers will get back on the court to face MIAA rival, third ranked team in the nation, Nebraska-Kearney, Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m.[/quote_right][/raw]
Junior Taylor Mares lead the team with nine kills and teammate counterparts senior Madison Schwartz and freshman Haley Corkill added 7. Fort Hays turned in an impressive defensive performance. Senior Makenzie Weinman had 12 digs and senior Jenna Ulrich led the team with five blocks. In her first game back from injury, red shirt junior Camille Hubert was second on the team with nine digs.
In their second match the Tigers squared off against national ranked BYU- Hawaii. The Seasiders came in ranked fifth in the nation and would sweep the Tigers 3-0 (25-23, 25-18,25-23).
Team leader a year ago Ulrich would lead the team with nine kills and following up her nine kill performance from the night before, Mares added eight. New setters to the team proved to be beneficial as freshman Kelsey Broadwell and junior Libby Ary combine for 31 assists.
The Tigers kept things interesting throughout even though not winning a single match. In game one the Tigers only trailed once until the match was knotted at 9-9, trailing by one at 23-22, but could not pull it out. In the second game Seasiders lead the way due to a poor hitting performance of .128 and five errors. In game three the Tigers led 12-8, but the BYU- Hawaii would go on a 11-5 run and lead throughout.
In the final day of the tournament the woes continued for the Tigers, dropping 3-1 (16-25, 22-25,26-24,25-19) to Lewis and then losing in straight sets to Hawaii Pacific (19-25, 13-25, 19-25).
More Tigers got involved in the offense in the match against Lewis as five different players would have six or more kills with Schwartz leading the way with nine.
Fort Hays stayed in Hawaii for a non-conference match up with Hawaii-Hilo, but would have the same results losing in straight sets (12-25,20-25,14-25).
Junior Sara Hewson would have a seaon high with 12 kills and was second on the team with nine digs. Weinman would once again lead the team with 12 digs.