ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Friends University Falcons fell 3-1 to the John Brown University Golden Eagles and then 3-0 to the William Penn University Statesmen today (Aug. 29) on the final day of the Eutectics Classic in St. Louis, Mo.

The Falcon started strong against JBU, getting four kills from Gabbie Taylor and two kills each from Sofia Mekelburg and Addison Fulton that fueled a 12-4 end to turn a 13-13 tie into a 25-17 win.

But the Golden Eagles responded, scoring the first seven points of the second set on the way to a 25-10 win.

John Brown then pulled out wins of 25-18 in the third set and 25-19 in the fourth to finish the match.

Taylor led the Falcons with 12 kills and 12 digs, with Mekelburg recording 20 assists.

Olivia Tucker had a team-leading 13 kills for the Golden Eagles and Chloe Hooper had 16 assists. Mia Bowman tallied a match-high 13 digs for JBU.

After dropping the first two sets to William Penn 25-19 and 25-16, the Falcons showed fight in the third and led 22-19 following a kill by Erin Cheatum. But the Statesmen found a way to close things out in three sets by winning five of the last six points to win 25-23.

Natalie Castillo produced a team-high 11 kills for the Falcons and Mekelburg had 25 assists along with eight digs. Bailey Wilson also had eight digs for Friends (3-5).

Emilie Bojorquez-McFadden led the Statesmen with 15 kills, while Courtney McWilliams had 28 assists and Maddy Gustafson recorded 14 digs.

The Falcons will next be home against Benedictine College on Friday evening (Sept. 4) at 6 pm before hosting Missouri Valley College and Randall University for a tri-match the following day (Sept. 5) at 11 am and 3 pm.