William Penn Box Score | St. Francis Box Score
MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Davenport got off to a good start on Friday by beating William Penn 3-1, but then fell in the same amount of sets to St. Francis (Ind.) in the nightcap. The Lady Panthers remain at .500 on the year as they are now 3-3 with two matches scheduled for Saturday at Cardinal Stritch (Wis.).
After two weeks between matches, the Lady Panthers traveled to Wisconsin to take part in the Cardinal Stritch Weekend Invitational. Friday got off to a good start as they were able to defeat William Penn (3-3) 3-1 (25-19, 21-25, 25-12, 25-17) but then ended the day with a four set loss to St. Francis (1-0) 24-26, 25-20, 23-25, 21-25.
In the opening win over the Statesman, DU had a solid balance on offense led by sophomores Kassie Graves (White Cloud, Mich.) with 16 kills and Kelse Moon (Fremont, Mich.) with 11. Five other Lady Panthers posted at least four kills in the match as Joyce Larioza (Fowlerville, Mich.) finished with nine and Kayla Vandermolen (Cedar Springs, Mich.) posted four kills, 45 assists and 12 digs.
DU struggled offensively in the second set as they hit only .159 compared to .250 in the first, .387 in the third and an excellent .469 in the fourth. Defensively, Courtney DePriest (Grand Rapids, Mich.) led the way with 19 digs as Graves also finished in double-digits with 10. Kelse Moon (Fremont, Mich.) was a force at the net as she posted one solo block and six assist blocks.
The second match of the night featured DU vs. the Cougars from St. Francis (Ind.). In what would turn out to be a close match from the get go, Davenport was unable to close out each set and eventually fell 24-26, 25-20, 24-26, 21-25.
The stat sheet was just like the overall score as each team featured a good balance of offense and defense. DU finished with 49 kills in the four sets compared to 51 from USF. Sophomore Brittany Bott led the way with 13 kills on 34 attempts. Kassie Graves (White Cloud, Mich.) also finished with 13 kills and Joyce Larioza (Fowlerville, Mich.) was the other Lady Panther to post double-digits with 10.
Kayla Vandermolen (Cedar Springs, Mich.) once again led the assist category with 41 and Courtney DePriest (Grand Rapids, Mich.) came in with her second straight double-digit dig match with 16. The blocking for DU hurt them throughout as they finished with only three block solos and two block assists.
Davenport (3-3) will now take on the host school Cardinal Stritch and Huntington University on Saturday before coming back to Michigan. Both matches will be available for live stats by clicking on the link on the schedule page or by clicking here.
