COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus Women's Volleyball team dropped its home opener in four sets to Neumann (22-25, 25-22, 19-25, 14-25) on Wednesday night in non-conference action at Helfferich Hall.
 
The Bears overall record drops to 1-2 overall while the Knights improved to 2-3 in the early portion of the season.
 
Junior Caroline Sherman led the Bears with a team-high 13 kills behind a .265 hitting percentage and has tallied three-straight games with double-digit kills. Sophomore Mel Eglinton added eight kills and a team-high 18 digs and senior Haley Spotts posted five kills and four digs. Junior Rachel Bernard paced the Bears offense with 16 assists while adding 11 digs.
 
 
The Bears came out strong in the first set as they won the first four points and extended their lead out to 7-3. Neumann began their rally by taking eight of the next 10 points to go up 11-9 in the set. Ursinus responded with four-straight points to go up 13-11 and battled from consecutive Knight points with four more of their own and made it a 17-13 advantage. However, the Knights heated up from the court and won 10 of the next 12 points by eight kills and went up 23-19 to force a Bears timeout. Three-straight Bear points kept them alive at 23-22 before Neumann ended the comeback with back-to-back points off a kill and ace.
 
Once again it was the Bears that won the first four points to start the second set and gained their largest lead of the set at 8-2. Neumann rallied again by winning seven of the next eight points to tie the match up at nine. Five of the next seven points went to the Bears to put them up 14-11 before the Knights used the same exact run of points to tie the match at 16. The teams traded points until Ursinus used what would be the decisive run of the set with three-straight kills by Sherman to go up 22-19. Neumann pulled within one point at 23-22 like the Bears did in the first set, but Ursinus finished off the set to tie the match at one.
 
Ursinus went up 3-2 early in the third set before the Knights reeled off six-straight points to go up 8-3. From there, the Bears continued to strike back and pulled within three points on four separate occasions but could not ultimately get the run they needed. Neumann led 21-18 and closed out the third set by winning four of the next five points and went up 2-1 in the match.
 
The Bears won the first three points of the fourth set but unfortunately could not overcome mistakes as the Knights won 14 of the next 15 points, including nine-straight, to take a commanding 14-4 lead. Ursinus got five-straight points to pull within 14-9 before the Knights took control the rest of the way to lock up the set and match.
 
Neumann was led by a potent 1-2 punch Regan Hickey and Lauren Garvey that combined for 25 kills with Hickey earning 14 of them. Naye Cruz added 10 kills and three blocks while Dani Smith paced the Knight offense with 39 assists along with posting 18 digs. Libero Claudia Bournazel led the Knights defensively with 23 digs.
 
 
The Bears return to action on Friday, September 8th as they will open play in Muhlenberg's Buttermaker Tournament with Eastern at 3:00 p.m. and Lebanon Valley at 5:00 p.m.