NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The Carleton volleyball team fell to the University of Minnesota Morris in five sets on Friday night at West Gym to open its play in the Carleton/St. Olaf Invitational. 
 
The Knights, who are hosting this weekend's tournament in conjunction with St. Olaf, will take on the University of Chicago, who received votes in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division III Top 25 Poll, and 19th-ranked University of Dubuque.
 
Carleton opened Friday night's contest strong, taking the first set 25-14.  Morris, who was playing its second match of the evening, took an early 2-1 lead before the Knights pulled in front and never looked back.  Leading 4-3, senior Ella Curtis-Revelle stepped to the service line and delivered three consecutive aces to give her team a 7-3 advantage.  A pair of 5-0 runs followed as the Maize and Blue jumped out to a commanding 19-7 lead.  Carleton scored the final three points of the set and finished things off with an exclamation point as first-year Cleo Garten closed things out with an ace.
 
The Cougars regained their footing in the second set, holding a 10-6 lead in the early going.  The lead climbed to as many as five (16-11) before the Knights responded with four straight points to pull within one (16-15).  The run was spurred by back-to-back kills from senior Sylvia Dixon and the home team was back in business.  A 4-1 response from the visitors pushed the lead back to four (23-19) and Morris held on from there to take the second set 25-22 and even the match.
 
It was a similar script through most of the third.  The Cougars led by as many as four on multiple occasions and still clung to a three-point lead (18-15) in the late stages.  This time the Knights came all the way back to take the lead scoring four straight points highlighted by a pair of kills from Dixon and another from first-year Ella Goolsby.  Now leading 19-18, Carleton was not in the driver's seat for long as the Cougars came back with three unanswered points to take a 21-19.  Four points later, the score was 23-21 in favor of the visitors before Carleton took advantage of three straight points to lead 24-23 with a chance to close the set.  But the Cougars finished strong, scoring the final three points of the set to win 26-24 and gain the 2-1 advantage in the match.
 
Though the Knights led early in set four, Morris held the advantage again midway through the frame.  Trailing 17-15, Carleton scored three straight points, a stretch that extended into what turned out to be a 10-2 run in favor of the home team to close out the set and send it to a deciding fifth.  The run included the final five points of the frame after holding a narrow one-point lead (20-19) to finish it off 25-19. 
 
Junior Megan Smith started the fifth set off with a bang, registering an ace to kick things off.  The Knights jumped out to an early 4-1 lead, but the Cougars responded with five straight points to take a 6-4 advantage and shift the momentum.  After switching sides, Carleton used a 4-1 run to regain the lead (11-10) when Smith called her own number to earn a kill.  But it was Morris who had the final say, scoring five of the final seven points of the match to take the final set 15-13 and the match 3-2.
 
The Knights recorded 10 aces and seven blocks on the night, but hit just .121 from the floor.  They were led by Sylvia Dixon, who earned a double-double with 15 kills and 11 digs.  Megan Smith also posted a double-double with 25 assists and 15 digs.  She also added three aces next two Ella Curtis-Revelle, who also tallied three aces to go along with a team-high 18 digs and seven assists. 
 
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton will be back in action at West Gym tomorrow when it hosts the University of Chicago at noon and 19th-ranked University of Dubuque at 4pm.