DC drops home opener

DEFIANCE, Ohio – Defiance struggled to find its hitting power and fell to the Student Princes of Heidelberg, 3-0.

Heildelberg (5-3) jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead over the Yellow Jackets (5-4) in the first set.  Bree Anderson (Huntertown, Ind. / Carroll) put a stop to the run, putting down a kill from Alicia Kalik (South Lyon, Mich. / South Lyon) to make the score 5-1.

DC battled the Student Princes but just couldn't close the gap.  Heidelberg started to pull away at 20-13 before a serving error gave DC a little momentum.  Kalik would then serve back-to-back points on a kill by Ari Mahaffey (Porter, Ind. / Chesterton) and big block from Meredith Shank (Maumee, Ohio / Springfield) and Hope Neargarder (Union City, Ohio / Mississinawa Valley) to cut the lead to 20-16.

That would be the last threat from the Yellow Jackets in the first set as Heidelberg would win that one 25-17.

DC would come out of the second half with a little fire.  Heidelberg would take the early 3-1 before Shank got things rolling for DC.  She would score two kills for DC at 3-2 and again at 4-3 to keep DC close early.  After a Kalik ace, Shank would pound another one into the floor to help catapult DC to an early 7-4 lead.

Heidelberg would score a couple unanswered points before Mahaffey came up with a big kill to keep Heidelberg at a distance 8-6.

The Student Princes slowly regained the momentum throughout the middle of the second set and eventually topped the Yellow Jackets by a count of 25-19 to take the 2-0 lead.

The Yellow Jackets would come out flat in set three, quickly dropping to a 10-4 deficit.  Freshman Shank would once again help DC try to garner some momentum with back-to-back kills to cut the lead to 10-7.

Heidelberg would go on a four point run before DC went on an 8-2 run on its own.  An attacking error from Heidelberg would put Kalik up to serve.  She would find her third ace of the match to cut the lead to 14-10.

After a Heidelberg kill, Mahaffey would find two more kills of her own, closing the gap to 15-13.

DC would go to cut the lead down to 16-15 thanks to an Anderson kill and a Makayla Dennis (Bryan, Ohio / Bryan) ace.

Heidelberg would again stop the DC run and stretch out the lead.  A 4-0 run to make the score 20-15 and prove to be too much for the Yellow Jackets to battle back from.  DC would drop the third and final set 25-21.

Shank led DC in kills with seven on the night.  Anderson was right behind with six of her own and Mahaffey and Kelsey Tietje (Deshler, Ohio / Patrick Henry) would add five apiece.

Leading DC in assists was Kalik with 20.

Rebecca Kain (Orland, Ind. / Prairie Heights) had a solid night in the back row with 15 digs while Jaidyn Patridge (Toledo, Ohio / Springfield) contributed with eight digs of her own.

The Yellow Jackets will play in another tournament this coming weekend, this time in Greencastle, Ind.  They start off with Concordia Chicago on September 12 at 2 pm before facing host DePauw on the same day at 6 pm.