Sophomore Merideth Jewell and senior Sydney Schuler combined for 31 kills, but Morehead State volleyball fell at home to Wright State in four sets. The Eagles won the first set, 25-18, but lost the next three to fall, 3-1.
With the loss, their record moves to 2-5 on the young season.
"We fed off the energy of the crowd in the first set, but weren't able to create momentum of our own after that," said head coach Jaime Gordon. "We fought at times, there were different portions of the match where we were doing things well, I thought we blocked well in the first set. But, I thought Wright State did a nice job of changing the tempo in what they were running and our defense didn't adjust or respond to some of those changes."
Trailing late in the third set, the Eagles mounted a rally and tied it at 22-22 on a service ace by sophomore Jordan Jones. But, Jones committed a service error on the next point and then the Raiders scored the next two to clinch the set. Morehead State then fell 25-16 in the fourth set.
Jewell led the way for Morehead State with 16 kills on 55 attempts and added 16 digs, while Schuler had 15 kills on just 38 attempts, resulting in an impressive .289 hitting efficiency.
Jones, playing the role of primary setter in the absence of senior Bailey Nichol, finished with 37 assists, eight digs, and two kills. Freshman Danielle McCarson led the team with 17 digs.
Morehead State finished with 47 kills to Wright State's 44 and hit .167 to WSU's .182. They limited the Raiders to a -.175 hitting efficiency in the first set, but then WSU hit .333, .279, and .429 the rest of the way.
Once again, unforced errors were an issue for the Eagles as they committed 14 service errors.
"When we fought back, just like we did in the third set to tie it up, we constantly gave away momentum, and gave away points, at critical times. And we did it, unfortunately, with unforced errors and that's something we're going to have to fix moving forward," said Gordon.
Next up, the Eagles host the Eagle Challenge this weekend at Wetherby Gym. On Friday, they will face Appalachian State at 11 a.m. and Ball State at 7 p.m. ET, and then close the tournament against Northern Kentucky at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday.
