Women’s volleyball team loses twice on day one of home tournament

OLIVET, Mich. – The Olivet College volleyball team welcomed three other schools – University of Wis.-Eau Claire, Finlandia University and Denison (Ohio) University -- to The Cutler Event Center for the first day of a tournament. In today's matches, the Comets lost in three sets to Wis.-Eau Claire and Denison. The other matches saw Wis-Eau Claire sweep Finlandia, and Denison win in three sets over Finlandia.

Final Score: Wis.-Eau Claire def. Olivet 25-18, 25-16, 25-14
Location: The Cutler Event Center; Olivet, Mich.
Records: Olivet 12-12 overall, Wis.-Eau Claire 22-2 overall

• The Blugolds, ranked No. 14 in the most recent American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, had wire-to-wire leads in the first two sets.
• Wis.-Eau Claire scored the first point of the third set before the Comets went on a 4-0 run. Olivet maintained its lead until the Blugolds used a 6-0 scoring spurt to turn a 9-8 deficit into a 14-9 advantage. The Comets scored the next two points but that would be as close they would get for the rest of the set.

• Junior Madelyn Notenbaum posted team-highs in kills (10), attack percentage (.471) and set assists (16) to lead Olivet.
• Junior Brittney Prince finished with six kills.
• Junior Gabrielle Mundt collected a match-high 16 digs.

• Krista Meyer topped Wis.-Eau Claire with nine kills and a .444 hitting percentage.
• Arianna Barrett, Jessica Coyne and Madelyn Pashibin each had five kills.
• Leah Witzel dished out 16 set assists.
• Taylor Scalia recorded 12 digs.

Final Score: Denison def. Olivet 25-17, 25-17, 25-21
Location: The Cutler Event Center; Olivet, Mich.
Records: Olivet 12-13 overall, Denison 9-12 overall

• Early in the first set, the Comets led by three points on three occasions. After the last time at 4-2, the Big Red put three straight points on the scoreboard and they did not relinquish the lead for the rest of the set.
• Denison scored nine of the first 10 points of the second set and never looked back.
• The Big Red opened the third set on a 5-0 run. Olivet chipped away at its deficit and took the lead for the first time, 13-12. Denison responded with a 6-1 run to go up 18-14. The Comets answered with four consecutive points to tie the set. The Big Red scored the next point before Olivet scored two straight points for a 20-19 lead. Denison then scored six of the final seven points of the set to win it 25-21.

• Prince slammed down nine kills.
• Junior Morgan Champion added eight kills.
• Notenbaum registered another double-double with a team-high 22 set assists to go along with 10 digs.
• Mundt finished with a team-leading 18 digs.
• Freshman Drue Mullin contributed five kills and 17 digs.

• Emma Woerner led all players with 14 kills.
• Payton McElfresh was next with 10 kills.
• Julia Miller notched 37 set assists.
• Marilja Pavlick had a match-best 20 digs.

• Olivet hosts the second day of the tournament tomorrow. The Comets face Finlandia at 10 a.m., followed by a match against University of Wis.-Platteville at approximately 2 p.m.