GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Eight matches into the 2019 season, Davenport University women's volleyball had yet to see one last five sets. However, the Panthers last two matches have gone the distance, but like Tuesday's result, they came up short, this time to Ashland inside the DU Student Center.

Ashland 3, Davenport 2
(25-20, 17-25, 20-25, 25-21, 13-15)

- Ashland led by as many as three on four occasions in the early going, the last coming at 9-6, before Davenport scored four-straight points to take its first lead of the match, 10-9.

- Following seven more ties, the final one being 18-18, the Panthers rattled off seven of the final nine points to take the set and a 1-0 match advantage.

- That period marked the most successful offensive output for DU as it hit .381 with 19 kills and only three errors on 42 total attacks.

- On the other side, the Eagles hit .263 in the first and were very consistant with a hitting percentage of at least .233 in each of the match's five sets.

- In the beginning of the second set, Davenport scored first and pushed its lead to two at 3-1 and 4-2.

- However, Ashland responded with seven-consecutive points and Davenport could never quite recover. The Eagles pushed their lead to as many as nine, 24-15.

- In the third, aside from Ashland scoring the opening point and Davenport scoring to go up 8-5, the teams went back and forth with runs of at least two points.

- That trend lasted until the 25th total point when the Panthers opened up a mini 4-2 run to make it 15-15.

- However, the Eagles then scored three points in a row and didn't look back to go up two sets to one in the match.

- In the fourth, Davenport set the tone with four of the first five points, five of its first seven and six of nine.

- The Panthers led the whole way after that including a margin as big as six, 15-9 and 16-10.

- The Eagles cut it to one, 16-15, but the Panthers called a timeout and never let it get closer than that.

- The home team was up 4-1 in the fifth before a lead of 5-3. However, the visitors used a 7-1 run to go up four, 10-6.

- After that, the closest the hosts could get to the away team was one at 14-13, but Ashland scored the point after that to seal the match in its favor.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Three different Panthers racked up at least 10 kills including Megan Herr with a career-high 18, Emmy Webb with 16 (.452 hitting percentage), and Hayley Kreiger with 13.

- Setting up the offense was Sami White and she was brilliant. The senior stacked up 54 assists, 10 more than her previous career high that came when she was a true freshman.

- Davenport was able to land seven service aces including two apiece by Emmy Webb, Nina Rudnitsky and Kiera Lasky.

- Defensively, Herr and Laura Bouwkamp each tallied two blocks while four different Panthers had double-digit digs including Rudnitsky (19), Kenzy Corstange (14), Kendra DeJonge (11), and White (10).

NEXT UP
- Davenport will be at home on Saturday with a 5 p.m. first serve against Wayne State inside the DU Student Center.

Story by: Cooper Weidenthaler