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LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Morehead State volleyball team had late leads in all three sets against nationally-ranked Kentucky Monday night, but in the end the No. 18 Wildcats rallied to edge the Eagles, 3-0 (25-18, 25-21, 28-26).
The Wildcats improved to 8-3. MSU dipped to 9-5.
Morehead State doubled-up Kentucky on blocks, 12-6. MSU now has 29 team blocks in the last two matches. Junior right-side hitter Alex Fitzmorris had six stops, while junior middle blocker Laura McDermott and sophomore middle blocker Hannah Sigala tallied five apiece.
Senior libero Leslie Schellhaas picked up a match-best 19 digs and moved into fourth place in career digs at MSU with 1,840.
Morehead State led 22-19 in the third frame and had two set-point opportunities, but the hosts tallied four of the match's last five points. The Wildcats also scored the final six points in the opening set to grab control of the contest. The match featured 21 ties and seven lead changes, but UK never led by more than seven for the match.
"I told our team that I was happy with our effort," Head Coach Jaime Gordon said. "We made a few too many errors, and you can't do that against a nationally-ranked team and expect to get a positive result."
Kentucky hit .209 for the match, with Whitney Billings as the lone player in double-digit kills with 13. Setter Morgan Bergren had seven kills, including five in the first set, and hit .357.
"Their setter was tough," Gordon said. "She really took advantage and got a lot of kills on us early, but I thought we did a nice job in the second and third sets adjusting to their offense."
McDermott paced Morehead State with 11 kills and hit .308. Sophomore outside hitter Courtney Smith totaled eight kills.
Morehead State begins Ohio Valley Conference play on Friday at 8 p.m. ET at Belmont.
