Taylor Falls in Top-25 Showdown with Knights

UPLAND, Ind. – Looking for a second-straight win over a top-25 foe and its fourth win over a ranked opponent this season, No. 22 Taylor found itself off-target for much of the day and suffered a four-set loss to No. 21 Marian on Saturday inside Odle Arena.

The match opened with a disastrous pair of sets for the Trojans, as the visiting Knights (13-5, 4-2 CL) rolled to a 2-0 match lead with 25-19 and 25-17 set wins. TU mustered just 12 digs and one block in the opening set, as Marian's offense registered a crisp .314 hitting percentage. Then in the second, the Taylor attack went awry, misfiring with six early errors for an early 12-2 deficit that it could not recover from.

Ellie Frey and Ruth Anderson did their best to keep TU in the contest, combining for 10 kills and just one error on 20 swings in the opening set, before Frey hammered down seven of the team's eight kills in the second.

The Trojans finally came to life in the third set, getting an opening termination from Anderson and three-straight from Frey for a 4-0 lead, before a Reagan Salzbrenner attack moved the margin to 5-0.

An ace from Frey pushed the cushion to 9-2, but Marian stormed back to take late leads of 21-19 and 23-21. Taylor fought back however, forcing a fourth set by scoring the final four points in the 25-23 win. An Anderson kill and an ace by Mackenzie Gerig knotted the score at 23-23, before TU took the win on a go-ahead slam from Frey and a combined block from Andreson and Salzbrenner.

Frey and Anderson led the charge once again, with Frey posting seven kills in the set without an error and Anderson recording kills on all four of her attempts in the set.

Taylor could not carry the momentum over into the fourth however, as a string of early hitting woes saw MU bolt to a 5-0 lead. Four kills from Daya Vestal helped keep the Purple and Gray within reach at 11-5, but three more hitting errors pushed the Marian gap to 16-9 as it ran away with the 25-15 clincher.

Frey closed the match with 23 kills and 14 digs, as she climbed over the 300-kill mark for the season in just 18 matches. The junior logged her sixth outing of at least 20 kills, doing so for a third time in her last four contests, and adding her 11th double-double of the year.

Anderson followed with nine kills in her 18 swings, posting a .389 percentage, with Vestal closing with seven kills in 16 attempts for a .375 clip. Margo Hernandez and Lindsay Springer combined for 42 assists, with Hernandez adding three aces and 12 digs.

The Trojans ultimately could not overcome an uncharacteristically off day on offense however, hitting just .103 as a group with 31 errors to just 47 kills.

No. 22 TU (13-5, 4-2 CL) will look to get back on track when it plays at Saint Francis (4-14, 0-6 CL) on Wednesday, September 24, in a 7:00 pm start.