Volleyball

MILWAUKEE – The Mount Mary College volleyball team took care of business Friday against visiting Northland International University, sweeping the Pioneers 25-11, 25-9, 25-22. Though Saturday the Blue Angels struggled with consistency, and fell to Beloit College 25-11, 23-25, 24-26, 17-25 and Lake Forest College 17-25, 17-25, 25-27 at the Milwaukee School of Engineering tournament.

Friday night, Mount Mary dominated every facet of the match as the host Blue Angels hit a blistering .235 as a team led by 14 kills and a .542 hitting percentage from  junior outside Stephanie Hardwick (West Allis, Wis.). While Mount Mary didn't compile too many kills—just 33 on the night—errors doomed the Pioneers who tallied 20 hitting errors and just 17 kills for a -.046 hitting percentage.

It was a different story Saturday morning, as Mount Mary played very poorly against a pair of opponents at the MSOE tournament. In the opening set against Beloit College, Mount Mary showed it was the better team by pouncing on the Buccaneers 25-11. Yet the proverbial train completely derailed as the Bucs started picking up momentum. A late charge finally pushed Beloit through with a 25-23 set two win, and the Bucs held on in the third set 26-24 and cruised in the fourth 25-17 to steal the match away.

"The loss to Beloit was disappointing," head coach Kelsey Peterson said. "I felt like we were the better team physically. We won the first set easily and I think the team as a whole got too relaxed. Once Beloit started playing better and digging more of our attacks, I think we just got frustrated and quit communicating with each other. Losing this match was a huge wakeup call to myself and all the ladies that we can't rely on just physical talent; we really couldn't get a grip mentally on this one."

Facing Lake Forest for the second time in five days, Mount Mary overcame lopsided first sets to push the Foresters in the third, but unlike last Tuesday, couldn't put together the finishing touches to snag a set win against LFC.

"Coming right off the loss to Beloit, and already losing to Lake Forest earlier in the week, the team knew they were going to have to battle," Peterson said. "However, I feel like everyone's attitudes improved and they tried their hardest to stay positive. We are lacking depth, and playing two matches back to back was physically fatiguing. It definitely started to show going into that third set, and that's when we started making some silly errors and giving points up."

The 1-2 record on the week drops the Blue Angels to 7-8 on the year—the first time they've been below the .500 mark since losses at the Ripon Triangular nearly three weeks ago.

Mount Mary will look to get back on track on the road against a tough Aurora squad Wednesday at 7 p.m.