Jackets Open HCAC Slate With Five-Set Loss at Manchester

N. MANCHESTER, Ind. – The 2010 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference schedule kicked off on Wednesday night for the Defiance College volleyball team. The Jackets battled Manchester to five sets but could not come away with the road victory.

The two sides traded punches all night, in the grueling match that lasted over two hours and saw Manchester score the first blow with a 26-24 win in the opening set. The Spartans would then build a 12-9 lead in the second set, before Defiance rallied with a 5-0 spurt to take the 14-12 lead and survived a late MC charge to tie the match with a 25-21 victory.

Despite dropping the second set, Manchester carried over the momentum from its late rally to open up a 19-12 cushion in the swing set and rolled to the 25-16 win.

After DC forced a decisive fifth set with a 26-24 win in set four, Manchester bolted to an 8-3 lead and pushed the spread to six points at 12-6. A kill from Christa Seidenstricker ignited a 4-0 rally from the Jackets, which was capped by a Marlea Rolander kill to draw DC within 12-10. Another Rolander kill would narrow the deficit to 14-13 but Manchester (5-9, 1-0 HCAC) scored the final tally to win the set and the match.

Rolander ended the night with 12 kills and no errors in 23 swings, while Chelsea Ludeman and Ashlyn Howell each had 11 kills. Sara Porter and Heather Bradshaw paced the defense with 24 and 19 digs each and Kelsey Ferguson added 27 assists and a pair of service aces.

Defiance (4-10, 0-1 HCAC) will head to Santa Cruz, Calif., on Thursday and will compete in the UC Santa Cruz Tournament on Friday and Saturday. The Jackets will open with Concordia on Friday at 2:00 pm, before playing Simpson at 8:00 pm.