Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 EUCLID, OHIO (Sept. 15, 2017) – The Salem International University (SIU) Tigers volleyball team dropped its first two matches of the Notre ­­­Dame College Invitational; losing in three sets to the Notre Dame (ND) Falcons and the Lock Haven University (LHU) Bald Eagles.

The two losses drop Salem to 2-12 on the season.

"Today we fought hard and rallied with Notre Dame and Lock Haven," Head Coach Ashley Ziegle said. "We struggled with our blocking and made too many errors with hitting and serving. If we can cut those unforced errors, we can have a strong day tomorrow."

Notre Dame College

Rachel Hess led the Tigers with 11 kills and Cassidy Pluta had 15 assists and two aces, but Tigers lost to the Falcons in three sets (20-25, 16-25, 20-25).

The Tigers played tough in the first set, twice tying the game or taking a brief lead, but surrendered two different five-point Falcon runs.

For the match, SIU had 31 kills on 99 attacks with 16 errors for a .152 hitting percentage. Notre Dame College finished with 42 kills on 100 attacks with 14 errors for a .280 hitting percentage.
Melissa Maczuzak led the Falcons with 15 kills, many coming from passes from Paige Staudacher, who finished with 31 assists.

Lock Haven University

In their second match of the day, the Tigers had more attack errors (23) than kills (20) on 99 attacks to finish with a negative .030 hitting percentage, losing in three sets (8-25, 10-25, 18-25).

Sophie Freihofer had a strong all-around performance for SIU with a game-high nine kills and 15 digs while LHU had a balanced attack—four players finished with at least five kills—led by Annie Dombrowski's eight kills and Kristen Nealon's 30 assists.

What's next

The Tigers will wrap up their participation in the Notre Dame College Invitational on Saturday with a final match against Concord University at 1:30 p.m. On Sept. 20, Salem will host West Liberty University at 7 p.m.
Live streaming for Saturday's match versus Concord University can be found by clicking here.