FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The Indiana Tech women's volleyball team fell to Lawrence Tech in three sets (25-15, 25-18, 25-23) on Wednesday evening in their home and Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) opener at the Schaefer Center.
Olivia Niekamp and
Courtney Mack led the Warriors with seven kills apiece, with the former hitting .375.
Autumn Stokes and
Karli Jones dished out a combined 27 assists while
Madeline MacDonald recorded 13 digs.
The Blue Devils would come out of the gates firing in the opening set, taking the first three points while racing out to a 10-4 lead. The Warriors would keep with visitors within striking distance over the next few points, but a 7-0 spurt would put Lawrence Tech up 21-9 before putting away the set with a 25-15 win and a .467 hitting percentage.
LTU would take advantage of several errors from Tech in the second set to get out to an 11-4 advantage that was capped by a 5-0 run. The Blue Devils would use a pair of 4-0 runs to increase their lead to 23-12 and poised to go up 2-0 in the set, but the Orange and Black would respond with a 6-0 run that put life into the home team and crowd as they cut the deficit to 23-18 and forced a timeout from the Blue Devils. The visitors would regroup however, taking the next two points to take the second set 25-18.
The third set would be a back-and-forth affair between the two sides, with 15 ties and eight lead changes in the most tightly contested set of the match. With the hosts trailing 16-13, a kill from Stokes would spark a 5-0 spurt to give Tech an 18-16 lead. LTU would respond with a 4-1 run to retake the lead, but the Warriors would not go down lightly though, fighting back to go up 22-21. With the match tied up at 23-all the Blue Devils would benefit from a pair of Warrior errors to take the next two points and complete the sweep.
Tech (4-5, 0-1 WHAC) returns to nonconference action this weekend as they travel to Portsmouth, Ohio for the Shawnee State Fall Classic. The Warriors open up action against Montreat College and Point Park University on Friday afternoon. First serve with Montreat is set for 3 p.m. from Waller Gymnasium.
