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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Davenport won the opening set on Wednesday night but could not pull out any of the final three as they fell in a close 3-1 match to NAIA No. 18 Madonna University. The visiting Crusaders won sets two through four 25-17, 25-23, 25-23 to improve to 22-5 on the year and 6-0 in league play while the Panthers suffered their second straight defeat to fall to 17-5 and 4-2 in league action. Davenport will return to the court this Friday when they welcome in Indiana Tech to the Student Center for a 7pm match.

Kelse Moon and Marcey DeHaan posted 12 and 10 kills respectively on Wednesday night but the Crusaders posted the close wins in the third and fourth sets to hand DU its first loss on their home court in 2012. Amber Getty (19) and Lexie Spetoskey (18) were the team's leaders in assists and Sidney Rodriguez led four players in double-digit digs with 19.

Sets one, three and four were almost identical from the opening serve to the final point with the outcome being the only difference of who came out on top. MU built a 23-21 lead in the first only to see the Panthers rally to score four straight points to claim the two point win. Hannah Stone got the final kill of the set to put DU up 1-0.

Madonna came back in the second with their strongest offensive output of the match posting a .155 hitting percentage to win 25-17. The all-important third set started with DU jumping out to a 7-3 lead after a termination from Stone on a perfect set from Lexie Spetoskey. The lead would remain four until MU posted a 5-1 run to tie the set 11-11. The Crusaders looked as if they would close out DU as they built a 24-21 lead but back to back points from the Panthers forced MU into a timeout. Getting a free ball on the next rally, DU was unable to tie it up as MU escaped with the 25-23 win on an attack error from the Panthers.

Set four saw neither team hold more than a two point lead until the Crusaders used a 4-1 run to lead 16-13. The margin would grow to six at 20-14 until DU got within one at 23-22 and 24-23 but another hitting error by the Panthers gave MU an identical 25-23 win and the match 3-1.

Neither offense was able to get on track as both defenses were on their game. MU finished with 14 total blocks while the Panthers posted 11. MU's Samantha Geile led all players with 14 kills while reigning NAIA Player of the Week Evia Prieditis posted 38 assists.
Davenport will host Indiana Tech on Friday at 7:00pm inside the Student Center. The Warriors are 6-0 in league play.

Post-Match Quotes – Sophomore Amber Getty
On playing in large home crowd - “It's a great experience seeing fans their for you and it brought intensity and helped us out a lot.

On preparing for Indiana Tech after close loss – “We have to take what we did today and know what we need to learn from and be prepared for Friday. We cannot dwell on this situation and look forward to another tough match on Friday vs. Tech.”

Post-Match Notes
Madonna has now won 15 of the 16 all-time matchups between the two programs with their only setback in 2011…Lexie Spetoskey posted her first double-double of the season with 18 assists and 10 digs…Davenport's opponent on Friday (Indiana Tech) is 57-2 in their last 59 WHAC matches dating back to 2008-09

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