By: Colton Steiner

CINCINNATI, Ohio - The Beavers traveled south and went head-to-head with the Mount St. Joseph Lions in a HCAC duel on Wednesday night. Despite getting out to an early lead, the Lions would be too much as they would hand Bluffton a 3-1 loss to improve to 12-12 overall and 7-1 in the conference. This loss drops the Beavers to 16-13 on the season and 1-7 in the HCAC.

Bluffton would get ahead early and win the first set 25-18, closing out the set on a 6-1 spurt. The Beavers smashed home 12 kills in the set with a .219 hitting percentage, including 3 blocks. While the visitors were able to start out ahead, Mount Saint Joseph would regain their composure and win the next two sets 25-19 and 25-17. In both the second and third set, the Lions would edge the Beavers in total kills with 14-9 and 13-9. While Bluffton was able to stay neck and neck with the Lions in the fourth set, the home team managed to close out the contest on an 8-0 run to win the fourth set 25-17, and winning the match 3-1.

Hitting .148, Bluffton was able to rack up 41 kills as a team while Mount St. Joseph would smack home 46 kills with a .189 hitting percentage. While the Lions edged out the Beavers in aces with 10-3, Bluffton would hold the advantage in total blocks, 6-5.

Leading the Beavers at the net was Chloei Barnett (Wapakoneta) who smashed 13 kills on 35 attempts. Bekah Pack (Lexington) and Chloe Sample (Springfield/Catholic Central) each added eight winners a piece. Scraping up 21 digs in the outing was Saniyah Terry (Macomb, MI/L Anse Creuse HS North) with Gabby Williams (West Liberty/West Liberty-Salem) dishing out a team-high 35 assists.

Bluffton will hit the road once again and travel to Hanover on Saturday, November 9, to face off against the Panthers at 2 p.m. in their final match of the regular season.

-Beavers-