Women's Volleyball | 9/6/2019 9:42:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2     ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The West Liberty University volleyball opened the season here Friday with a pair of tough losses inside the McArthur Center at the power-packed Eckerd Volleyball Classic.
    Coach Kayla Mull's Hilltoppers fell to Tiffin (Ohio) by a 3-1 tally in their first match of the day before dropping a hard-fought 3-0 decision to No. 22-ranked Central Oklahoma.
    In the opener against Tiffin, which returned a strong nucleus from last year's 20-win team, the Lady Hilltoppers got off to a quick start with a 25-21 win in the opening set only to see the Dragons square the match with a 25-9 romp in the second set. Tiffin scored the last three points of the third set to take the lead with a 25-22 win and closed things out by a 25-18 tally in the fourth set.
    Mackenzie Sims had a double-double for the Black and Gold with 11 kills and 17 digs while Olivia Baumhoer added 9 kills. Kailee Cunningham matched Sims with 17 digs while Kendall Souder posting a team-high 21 assists.
    In the second match, the nationally-ranked Bronchos (2-0) broke open a see-saw opening set with a 6-0 run at the midway point and cruised to a 25-18 win. The Hilltoppers held several leads during the final two sets only to see Central Oklahoma finish strong to wrap up back-to-back 25-22 decisions.
    Freshman Alissa Dickson paced WLU with 6 kills while Caitlin Clarke and Baumhoer finished with 5 and 4 kills, respectively. Cunningham added 17 digs and 3 service aces while Souder posted a double-double with 15 assists and 10 digs.
    The Hilltoppers will try to break into the victory column on Saturday when they close out the tournament against Malone (Ohio) and host Eckerd.