Grace University Hands Lady Eagles Road Loss

The Faith Eagles traveled to Omaha, Neberaska Tuesday night to take on rival Grace University.  The Eagles had defeated the Royals earlier in the season 3-2.  Faith found themselves leading much of the match but could not find those valuable ending points, losing 3-1. The loss drops the Eagles to 9-6 on the year.

Faith led much of the first set and started out strong against a Royals team that had been playing good volleyball.  With the Eagles leading 24-23 and a chance to win set one they experienced a missed opportunity with a serviing error.  The Royals then returned the favor to put Faith back up by one only to see another serving error.  After trading points Grace finally gained set one 30-28. 

Set two saw much of the same action with both teams taking leads.  The Eagles again made the set close with good defensive efforts and hitting at 41%.  With the score tied at 20-20 once again the Eagles could not take advantage of opportunities and lost 25-20.  Set three found Faith finally breaking through with a 25-23 win. The Eagles gained the set win despite a low 5.6% attack.  "In set three I was glad to see our determination to win hold out.  Again, it was a close set but it was a confidence builder to get the win.  We still felt we had an opportunity to win the match with the way we were playing," cited Nihart. 

Set four found the Eagles with short leads  of 7-5 and 10-8.  However, Grace began to get the advantage of short hits and net hits and took the match 25-16.  Faith was led by outside hitter JoJo Hodak with a 26.5% attack 11 kills and 26 digs.  Senior middle Julia Rocha added 13 kills and two blocks.  

Faith returns to action this Friday at 8 PM on Senior Night while hosting their annual Midwest Invitational Spikefest highschool tournament. The Eagles will take on Emmaus Bible College. Faith fell to Emmaus 0-3 on the road earlier this year.