ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Carleton volleyball team saw its five-match winning streak snapped on Friday night at the Macalester Invitational. The Knights fell to Minnesota-Morris in straight sets to fall to 7-3 on the season.
The Cougars jumped out to an early 4-1 lead in Friday night's opening set. Carleton clawed back moments later, scoring four straight points to take a 7-6 lead. But Morris responded with four unanswered points of its own to re-gain the lead 10-7.
The Knights came back to tie the set 11-11, but the Cougars rattled off eight straight points to shift the momentum completely to their side of the net with a 19-11 lead. Carleton scored 11 of the next 15 points to pull back within one (23-22), but it was as close as the Knights would come as the Cougars closed the set with the final two points to take the opener 25-22.
Friday's second set began in identical fashion to the first. After the Knights scored the opening point, the Cougars scored the next four points to open up a 4-1 lead. That advantage grew to six (10-4) and eventually grew to seven (17-10) as Morris continued to pull away. Carleton scored the next two points, but Morris scored eight of the final nine points of the set to take it 25-13 and grab a 2-0 lead in the match.
Carleton seemed to find some momentum early in the third set. Trailing 5-4, the Knights went on an 8-2 run to grab a five-point lead (12-7). Junior
Sylvia Dixon highlighted the run with a pair of kills and the Maize and Blue appeared to be finding its groove. Back-to-back kills from senior
Kerrigan Candra gave Carleton a 14-9 lead before a 7-1 run for the Cougars gave the opponents the lead back (16-15).
From there the two teams traded scoring consecutive points. Tied 21-21, Morris capitalized on a key 3-0 run to take a 24-21 lead. Candra answered with back-to-back kills to bring the Knights within one, but the deficit was too much to overcome as the Cougars scored the final point of the match to take the third set 25-23 and the match 3-0.
Carleton couldn't get anything going offensively for much of the match, accumulating 30 kills on just a .046 hitting percentage. Morris held the edge with 37 kills and a .278 hitting rate. The Knights doubled up the Cougars in service aces (10-5), but it wasn't enough to overcome the hitting disparity.
Candra led all players with 10 kills in the match.
Sylvia Dixon followed with eight kills to go along with seven digs and three aces. Sophomore
Megan Smith put up 19 assists and first-year
Madeleine Dimitre registered 16 digs to anchor the Carleton defense.
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton will be back in action again tomorrow with a pair of matches to close out the Macalester Invitational. The Knights will take on UW-Superior at 1pm before concluding the weekend against Grinnell College at 3pm.
