The Murray State volleyball team extended their losing streak to 10 after traveling to Cedar Falls and Des Moines, Iowa, on Oct. 3-4 to play Drake and the University of Northern Iowa. The Racers are now 0-4 in conference play.

Friday, Oct. 3 at Drake

The Racers lost their 10th consecutive game of the season against Drake, despite having 11 more total attacks than the opposing team in the match due to their 19 errors.

The first set had an unbroken lead for Drake, and the Racers struggled to keep up with the Bulldogs and their offenses’ constant kills.  At multiple points in the set, Drake had more than double the Racers’ score. This led to the Bulldogs taking a comfortable 25-15 set and gaining momentum for the approaching sets.

The Racers, despite keeping up with Drake’s pace at first, made continuous serving errors to give Drake the ability to take the lead back. The Racers struggled at first to remain in the game after those errors but were able to profit off of their own offense to keep the score close. After many player substitutions from both sides, Drake managed to take and secure another set 25-20.

Murray State started the final set with a large lead due to kills by senior outside hitter Nuccio Federica and assists by junior setter Paige Brock. Even though the Racers were able to dominate early, the Bulldogs slowly crept back into the game. As the scores became close again, the Racers made many back to back errors, allowing Drake to come back to tie and eventually win the set 25-21.

Although the Racers had a stronger offensive game in the stat sheet, making 117 kills to Drake’s 106, the team’s weak defense and untimely errors prohibited them from gaining and maintaining any substantial leads. Junior outside hitter Alexa Watts led the team with 24 errors while freshman outside hitter Anne Makowski had 21 of her own.

Senior outside hitter Ella Vogel continued to highlight her offensive power in the Racers roster with 11 kills and 23 attacks. Nuccio Federica had 27 attacks, the most on the team. The two of them totaled 50 of the teams’ overall attacks in the match.

Saturday, Oct. 4 at UNI 

UNI took an early lead as the Racers began the first set with multiple errors, something the team has struggled with throughout the season. The Racers profited from UNI’s errors and caught up with kills from Makowski and Pristovnik. Despite both teams’ offenses intensifying near the end of the set, UNI was able to finish with a 25-23 lead. 

The second set was not nearly as close, as Northern Iowa had a comfortable lead for the duration of the set. The Racers were unable to comeback from such a large lead and while they picked up their offense near the end, they were outscored by UNI 25-10. Even though the previous set was dominated by UNI, the Racers kept a close score in the early stages of the third and final set. While it started with either team in the lead, UNI was able to create a large score differential, and the Racers fell behind nearing the end of the set and lost 25-15.

The Racers’ kill leader, Vogel, had her second straight game with 11 kills while Makowski had seven and Federica had six. Despite the strong hitters on the Racers roster, the team has 115 less kills than opposing teams while racking up 35 more errors so far this season.

The Racers play again at 6 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 10 at home against Indiana State for their 13th game of the season.