Case Western Reserve University senior Alyssa Blessinger became the 20th player in program history to reach 1,000-career digs during the Spartans' match at Mount Union on Wednesday night, but the Spartans were ultimately unable to come away with a victory, falling 3-1 (25-22, 25-20, 15-25, 25-19) to the Purple Raiders in Alliance, Ohio.
The Spartans, who received votes in the latest AVCA Top-25, suffered their first loss of the season to drop to 4-1 overall. Mount Union improved to 3-2 with the win.
Blessinger, who entered the match with 999 career digs, reached the milestone early in the first set of the match and finished the contest with a team-high 26 digs, her highest single-match total through five games this season. Senior Jennifer Ngo, who hit .389 for the match, recorded a season-high 18 kills and recorded eight total blocks (two solo and six assisted), one short of her career-high.
Junior Rea Marfatia finished the match with 13 kills and sophomore Kalli Wall added 12 kills. Junior Carly Scott led the team with 25 assists and senior Ansley Yamaato added 22 assists on Wednesday night.
CWRU held a 20-16 lead late in the first set, but the Purple Raiders rallied off six-straight points to go ahead 22-20 before pulling out the 25-22 victory in the opening frame. Mount Union extended its lead, never trailing in the second set en route to a 25-20 win, going ahead 2-0 in the match.
The Spartans rallied back with a dominating performance in the third set, leading by as many as 11 points before winning 25-15 to pull the score back to 2-1. As a team, CWRU hit .400 during the third frame.
CWRU fell behind early in the fourth set, trailing 9-5 before scoring four straight points to even the score. However, Mount Union scored six of the next seven points to go ahead 15-10 and the Spartans would not get any closer than four points the rest of the way, as the Purple Raiders won the fourth set 25-19 to clinch the match.
The Spartans will play their first home matches of the season this weekend when the team hosts the CWRU Quad inside Horsburgh Gymnasium. CWRU will open competition at the weekend tournament on Friday night at 5:30 p.m. against Averett.
