Sterling drops game to Southwestern

The Lady Warriors came out flat against Southwestern College and lost to the Moundbuilders 25-19, 25-22, 25-23 on Saturday, Sept. 27 on Kruse Court.

The first set started with a back-and-forth battle with Sterling coming away with the first kill from Aliya McClanahan which was quickly answered with a kill from Southwestern's Autumn Bennett. The teams traded points with kills and errors until the Moundbuilders used back-to-back kills from Sarah Dippre and Bennett and a solo block from Bennett to pull ahead 16-13. Despite consecutive kills by Kirchhoff, Southwestern was able to pull away and come out of the first set with a 25-19 win.

The Moundbuilders kept the momentum at the start of the second set using kills by Mikki Johnson and Bennett along with a service ace from Natalie Blaufuss to put Southwestern up 5-0. McClanahan responded with back-to-back kills to get Sterling on the board. However, the deficit was too much, despite the Lady Warrior's late set rally, highlighted with a kill from Chloe Schmidt followed by blocks from Schmidt and Kodie Herd.

The third set played out much like the first, with Sterling and Southwestern trading points off of kills and service errors. The Moundbuilders pulled away taking advantage of consecutive attack errors by the Lady Warriors to take the 18-13 advantage. Despite another late set surge, spurred on by kills from Schmidt and Keala Wilson and a service ace from Suzanna Williams, Sterling was unable to overcome Southwestern's lead and ultimately loss 25-23.

Offensively, the Lady Warriors were led by McClanahan who had a hitting percentage of .556 to total 11 kills followed closely by Schmidt and Rodriguez with seven and six, respectively. Wilson led Sterling in assists with 19 while Schmidt was Sterling's defensive pressure at the net, accumulating four blocks, two of which were solo. Taylor "Dru" Lindsey covered the Lady Warrior's backcourt leading Sterling with 15 digs followed by Grace Battershell with 10.

After the loss, the Lady Warriors move to 9-6 overall, 0-3 in conference. They will take on Bethel College (11-8, 1-1) at home on Wednesday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m.

Be sure to check for news and updates on Sterling Warrior Athletics on Facebook (/SCWarriors), Twitter (@SterlingCSports), and Instagram (sterlingcsports), as well as the hashtag #SwordsUp. Watch the Warriors' live home events on the Sterling College Sports Network.