WICHITA, Kan. – The Friends University Falcons fell by identical scores of 3-0 to the Peru State College Bobcats and the MidAmerica Nazarene University Pioneers on the final day of the Friends Invitational today (Aug. 22) inside the Garvey Center.
Down 2-0 in the first match of the day to Peru State, the Falcons found themselves in a 10-2 hole in the third set but showed some fight following a timeout from head coach Kortney Rehorn and scored four straight points behind kills from Erin Cheatum, Gabbie Taylor and Sofia Mekelburg.
With the Falcons still hanging in down 21-17, the Bobcats got a pair of kills from Shealie Wiebers and a final kill by Lilly Dinnel to finish the set and match 25-18.
Cheatum delivered a team-high seven kills for the Falcons and Amber Ellis led the team with 14 assists. Taylor posted a team-leading 11 digs.
Wiebers paced the Bobcats with nine kills and 13 digs while Teodora Bulatovic had a team-high 16 assists.
The Falcons then fell in three tough sets of 25-22, 25-21 & 25-21 to the Pioneers to wrap up play for the weekend.
Cheatum again led Friends with six kills vs. MNU, with Mekelburg and Ellis each leading the team with eight assists. Haley Ziser had a team-high 14 digs for the Falcons.
Dominka Bartosz had a match-high 12 kills for the Pioneers and Anna DeGraffenreid paced the team with 23 assists. Emily Mathis led MNU with 21 digs.
The Falcons, now 2-2 on the season, will next compete at the Eutectics Classic in St. Louis, Mo. starting on Friday (Aug. 28) with matches against Freed-Hardeman University at 3 pm and the tourney host University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy at 7 pm. Friends will then have games against John Brown University Saturday (Aug. 29) at 9 am and William Penn University at 1 pm.
