ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The West Liberty University volleyball team won their first set of the season, but dropped the match, 3-1, to Tiffin this afternoon at the Eckerd College Invitational.

West Liberty (0-3) started the match with three straight points to take the early lead. Tiffin responded with seven of the next eight points to go up 7-4. The Hilltoppers kept it within three points for the remainder of the set and got the score to 24-23 before committing a service error.

After a four point run by WLU in the middle of set two tied the score at 16, the Dragons secured a 2-0 lead with nine points over the next 11 rallies.

Two big scoring runs propelled West Liberty to their first set win of the 2022 campaign and kept them alive in the match. Trailing 12-6, a kill by Leah Driscoll started a string of seven consecutive points for the Black and Gold to take the lead. The Hilltoppers broke up the back-and-forth flow with eight of the final nine points to earn the set three victory.

The Dragons controlled set four, getting up 10-5 and never looking back en route to the 25-14 match-clinching win.

Leading the Black and Gold was Riley Cudnik, who slammed 13 kills, Haley Zeck with 35 assists, and Nyia Setla with 23 digs, all match-highs.

West Liberty finishes its trip down south with a 5:00 pm first serve against Wilmington (Del.).

Follow the Hilltoppers all season online at HilltopperSports.com as well as on Twitter (@WLU_Volleyball | @WLathletics), Instagram (@wlu_volleyball | @wlu_athletics), and Facebook.