LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Earlham College volleyball team was eliminated from the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament by Mount St. Joseph with a 3-2 score on Saturday evening. 

Maria Young continued her hot streak on offense with 22 kills and a .308 hitting percentage. The junior also had an ace, and three blocks. Skyler Murray followed with 13 kills. Liv Kyrk and Aniyah Harrington reached double-digit kills with 11 and 10 respectively. 

Erin Wagner reached the half-century mark with 50 assists on the evening. The senior also added a pair of kills, as well as two aces and three blocks. 

Jen Shamel led the way defensively as the Quaker libero with 22 digs. 

The Quakers scored 62 kills and hit at a .222 percentage as a team in the endurance battle. 

The Quakers jumped out to a 6-3 lead in the opening set to take early control. Earlham led for the entire set, and had its largest margin of 21-16. The Quakers hit 14 kills in the set. 

Earlham got ahead again in the second set with an early 5-1 lead. Earlham led the entire set once again, and had a .275 attack percentage as a team with only three errors. 

For the first time in the match, the Lions led early in the third set. MSJ came out with a 13-8 lead. Trailing 20-15, Earlham scored on three straight points, but the Lions scored a 5-2 run to end the set. 

The Quakers had their best offensive set in the fourth frame with 14 kills and three errors for a .324 percentage. Unfortunately, the Lions also had their best set with 16 kills and a .313 average. The Quakers trailed 23-18 before rattling off a 4-1 run, but a service error ended the run and the set. 

After being tied at 4 in the final set, Mount St. Joseph scored six straight points to lead 10-4. Earlham scored a 3-0 run while on match point, but could not rally enough to take down the Lions. 

The Quakers conclude their season with a mark of 14-16. Their conference record of 6-3 earned the third place seed in the regular season, and EC took a three set win in the opening round of the tournament against Bluffton earlier this week.