RIVER FALLS, Wis. – The Carleton volleyball team dropped a pair of contests to Simpson College and Nebraska Wesleyan University on the opening day of the UW-River Falls Falcon Invite on Friday at Don Page Arena.  The Knights pushed each match to four sets on Friday and will take on host UW-River Falls Saturday night.
 
Match 1 – Carleton 1, Simpson 3
 
Simpson, who entered the day unbeaten, took the opening set of Friday's first match.  The Storm utilized a 7-0 run to take an early 10-5 lead.  Later, a 9-2 run for the Knights gave the Maize and Blue a 15-13 lead.  Junior Kate Wiczynski put together four kills in the run and fellow junior Megan Smith tacked on a pair of service aces.  Carleton led 17-16 late in the set, but the Storm scored nine of the final 10 points of the frame to take the opener.  
 
Trailing 8-7 early in the second set, the Knights mounted an 8-1 run to open up a 15-9 lead.  The Storm answered with five straight points to pull within one point (15-14), but Carleton came right back with five unanswered points of its own and held on from there to take the second set 25-22.  The Knights hit a match high .303 in the set with 15 kills.
 
Simpson opened the third set with a 16-4 lead and never looked back on the way to a 25-13 win.  The Storm led 17-13 midway through the fourth set before finishing the frame by scoring eight of the final 10 points on the way to a 25-15 victory to seal the match win.
 
Simpson hit .254 for the match compared to .139 for Carleton.  The Storm also utilized a 16-4 advantage in service aces.
 
Individually, Carleton was led by Wiczynski, who tallied 13 kills and also had nine digs.  Junior Rachel Bingham was the only other Knight in double-figure kills with 11.  Megan Smith orchestrated the offense with 25 assists and first-year Angelina Erhardt anchored the defense with the first double-figure dig match of her collegiate career with 12 digs.
 
Match 2 – Carleton 1, Nebraska Wesleyan 3
 
Carleton dropped the first two sets before taking the third against Nebraska Wesleyan.  The Knights led 12-7 in the early going before the Prairie Wolves scored five straight to tie the score.  Later in the set, Carleton led 23-21 until Nebraska Wesleyan rattled off the final four points of the set to take it 25-23 and earn the 1-0 edge in the match.
 
The second set went the way of the Prairie Wolves early.  With the scored tied 6-6, Nebraska Wesleyan scored eight unanswered points to stretch a 14-6 advantage, one the Knights never recovered from.  Carleton would not come closer than five points on the way to a 25-16 win for the Prairie Wolves.
 
It was Carleton's turn to utilize an early run in the third set.  Tied 5-5, the Knights pulled away with an 11-2 run to crack open a 16-7 lead.  The Prairie Wolves pulled within five (19-14) late in the set, but the Knights closed the door, scoring six of the final seven points to take the second set in convincing fashion 25-15. 
 
A 6-0 run late in the fourth set proved to be the difference for Nebraska Wesleyan.  The spurt gave the Prairie Wolves a 20-11 lead on the way to a 25-14 win in the final set to take the match 3-1.
 
Wiczynski again led the way for the Knights with 10 kills.  Bingham followed with nine and senior Sylvia Dixon tallied eight.  Megan Smith put up 17 assists and Angelina Erhardt secured back-to-back double-figure dig matches, finishing with 11.
 
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton will be back in action tomorrow night when the Knights take on host UW-River Falls for a stand alone match at 7pm at Don Page Arena.