October 3, 2008 - For the second year in a row, the Hillsdale College volleyball team was sent away from Ferris State University's Ewigleben Arena with a loss.

The Chargers lost to the Bulldogs in four sets, 3-1. The set scores were 25-17, 25-22, 19-25 and 25-16. Hillsdale is now 12-6 overall and 4-4 in the GLIAC, while the Bulldogs improved to 4-4 in conference play. Hillsdale has lost four of its past five matches overall.

Hillsdale faces No. 8 Grand Valley State University at 4 p.m. Sarturday in Allendale.

Ferris State jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first set and didn't look back from there, cruising out to a 1-0 lead in the match. The second set was more evenly played, with the Chargers holding a 15-14 lead at one point. But Ferris State did a good job of containing the Hillsdale offense, and pulled out a 25-22 win in the second set.

Set three belonged to Hillsdale from the start, as the team took leads of 8-4 and 19-10. The Chargers were more efficient offensively, and got contributions from Amanda Bigney, Kittrick Smith and Clara Leutheuser on the offensive end to take control.

The fourth set was tied 10-10 before Ferris State grabbed momentum and never let go of it, outscoring the Chargers 15-6 to end the match.

The Bulldogs held a serving advantage on the Chargers, as Hillsdale committed eight service errors and 11 serve reception errors. Those equaled 19 points for the Bulldogs in the match.

An indication of the quality of Ferris State's defense can be found in Hillsdale's .099 attack percentage in the match as a team. The Chargers recorded 35 kills as a team, but had 24 attack errors in the match.

Smith led the Chargers with eight kills. Freshman Ashlee Crowder added seven kills and had two service aces. Junior Emily bennett had six kills, with Bigney and Leutheuser getting five apiece.

Senior setter Stephanie Booms had 26 assists and five digs, while sophomore Sydney Dow led the team with 10 digs.

To view the match statistics, click on the link below.

Box score