UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University women's volleyball team hosted Parkside in the team's Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) and home opener on Friday night. The Cardinals (2-7,0-1 GLIAC) fell to the Rangers (6-3, 1-0 GLIAC) in straight sets in the contest.

Nicole Sisk was SVSU's leading attacker with seven kills in the losing effort. Ava Beard paced play with 17 assists. Sarah Veale led defensively with 18 assists and Kelsey Vittitow contributed with 12 digs. Sedona Coon had a team-high .286 attack percentage while adding five kills and five digs to her stat line.

The Cardinals battled back from a 6-1 deficit early to cut the lead to 8-7 before the Rangers scored five of the next six points to pull ahead 13-8. Saginaw Valley flipped momentum to score five of the next seven points to come back within two points of tying things at 15-13. Two 4-0 runs for Parkside ended the first set at 25-18 and gave the visitors the 1-0 lead.

Saginaw Valley came out firing in the second set as they recorded five kills and a service ace to build a 10-2 lead. The Rangers then rattled off a 7-0 run to cut the lead to one point before working a tie at 16. Another long run of six ended the second in favor of UWP and put the score at 2-0.

The third set remained close throughout with the largest lead being five points when the Rangers held a 16-11 edge in the middle of the set. Veale earned a kill that sparked a 3-0 run for SVSU and cut the deficit to 17-16. Beard would do the same thing a few plays later that put the score at 23-21 following the run, but UWP collected two of the next three points to end the match in three with a 25-22 decision.

The SVSU volleyball squad hits the road for its second GLIAC contest at Lake Superior State tomorrow (Saturday, September 16) at 2:00 p.m.