GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Indiana Tech women's volleyball team came back from an early deficit to force a winner-take-all fifth set, but ultimately fell to Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) rival Aquinas, 3-2 (25-10, 25-19, 17-25, 24-26, 15-13) on Friday evening at the Sturrus Sports and Fitness Center.
 
The Saints come out firing in the first set as they used an 18-3 spurt, capped by a 9-0 run, to run away with the first set and go up 1-0. Aquinas would continue to dominate in the second as they used a 4-0 spurt to break a 13-all tie and go ahead 2-0 in the match with the 25-19 win.
 
The Warriors would find their grove in the third set though as they get out to an early 8-4 lead. Tech would increase their lead to 15-7 thanks to a 5-0 run before using a 4-0 spurt to go ahead 22-10 and stave off the sweep with a 25-17 set win.
 
The fourth set would feature 10 ties in a back-and-forth affair with the hosts looking to close out the match while the visitors seeking to extend the match to a winner-take-all fifth. Trailing 9-5, the Warriors would use a 4-0 run to tie the game up, with Jordan Aylward recording three consecutive kills and grabbing the block to notch Tech's ninth point of the set. Neither side would be able to extend any lead by more than four points and found themselves all knotted up at 24 as the Saints staved off set point, but the Orange and Black would get a kill from Olivia Niekamp to retake the lead while an Aquinas error gave Tech a 26-24 victory and evened the match at 2-2.
 
The two teams would trade points throughout the early portion of the fifth set, but Aquinas would rattle off three straight points to take a 10-6 lead while they increased their lead to 12-7 in the next three points. A pair of Saints errors would give Tech another life though, with Aubree Eggers and Niekamp then putting the ball down for kills to make it a 12-11 set. After trading the next four points, Aquinas would regroup with a timeout and then get a sideout to get match point and come away with the 3-2 win.
 
Eggers had a team-high 12 kills, recorded three blocks and hit .409 while Niekamp had 11 kills and a .370 attack percentage. Autumn Stokes dished out 27 assists and Madeline MacDonald had 24 digs while Aylward and Allison Cole had four blocks each.
 
Tech (7-8, 1-2 WHAC) returns to action on Saturday as they travel across Grand Rapids for a showdown with No. 10-ranked Cornerstone. First serve is set for 1 p.m. from Mol Arena.