Tuesday, October 8th the Lady Bears volleyball team traveled northeast to Manhattan, Kansas to have a second meeting against the nationally ranked Crusaders of Manhattan Christian College.

Hoping to improve from their first match up, the Bears were anxious to begin. As the sets got underway, the Bears were able to sustain many long rallies with the Crusaders thanks to a strong defensive night for the Bears. The Bears also had a strong presence on the net with many touches and four blocks. With so much focus on defending against the powerful hitting of MCC, the Bears offense produced only 12 kills collectively on the night. Without kills to win the points, the Bears found themselves losing many tough fought rallies. Contrary to the look of the scores, the Lady Bears fought hard and gave it their all, losing in straights sets, 9-25, 13-25, and 9-25.

“After playing so many nationally ranked teams and coming up short, I am proud of our girls efforts and how they continue to pull together as a team. They encourage one another and keep their heads, when it would be easy to be discouraged.” said Head Coach Shari Bryan after the loss.

Statistically, Senior Sarah Sullivan had 5 kills, while Junior Dani Gressel added 5 assist and 6 digs. Senior Hannah Williams put up 2 blocks and Sophomore RaeLyn Epp contributed a game high 9 digs.

The Bears will be back in action this weekend to finish out their regular season conference play and NCCAA Southwest Regional play. On Friday they will host Faith Baptist Bible College (Ankeny, IA) at 7:00 PM CST and then Dallas Christian College (Dallas, TX) at 1:00 PM on Saturday afternoon.