Mount Vernon, Ohio - The Marian volleyball team suffered their first road loss of the Crossroads League season on Wednesday night, as Marian was defeated by No. 19 Mount Vernon Nazarene in a three-set match. Marian's defeat drops them to 14-7 overall on the season and 8-3 in conference action, as the Cougars secured their first season sweep of the Knights since the 2016 season. The loss drops Marian to third overall in the Crossroads League standings.

Mount Vernon led all for all but two rallies on Wednesday night, starting with a strong first set as they overpowered Marian 8-2 early. Marian would rally to get within striking distance of the Cougars twice in the opening game, using a pair of Averi Lanman points to creep within three at 8-5, but after allowing two more three-point swings, the Knights found themselves trailing 14-8. Marian found themselves behind 17-9 four rallies later and used a timeout to try and change the momentum, doing so briefly with Nicole Wilkinson scoring one of four unanswered points, but a side out off a service error triggered a six point swing for the home team. With their grasp on the set, Mount Vernon put away Marian's chances as they closed the opening set with a 25-15 win.

The Knights yielded a similar start to the Cougars in the second set, as they played from behind early allowing the first four points to Mt. Vernon. The Cougars would go on to lead by five points before the 10th rally, and continued to hold a firm hold on the lead as they extended the lead to eight. Marian would get an extended rally on Emma Lyons' serve as the Knights scored five unanswered to turn the eight-point deficit into three, but were unable to continue the run. Trailing 17-13 after Mount Vernon got the side out, the Knights allowed five of the next six points to fall behind by seven, as the Cougars continued their attack en route to their 25-15 win.

Trailing 2-0 in the match, Marian showed new energy on the opening point of the third set as Emma Hirchack landed a kill, but the Cougars immediately took action to defend their court. Mount Vernon scored five of the next six points to push in front 5-2, as they gradually pushed their lead to six points at 11-6. Marian slowly chipped away in the set as they didn't go down without a fight, scoring in spurts of one or two points to inch back within two of the Cougars. Mount Vernon scored their largest lead of the set leading 19-13 after a 4-0 run, however the run was denied by back to back blocks from Averi Lanman. Lanman's pair of rejections kept Marian in the set, as Hirchak and Wilkinson slowly brought Marian within a point, trailing 23-22. Kohri Dryden's kill forced the timeout at 23-22, and after the break Marian got back to a tie score for the first time in the set since 1-1, but the Knights failed to hold their momentum, as an attack error and service error doomed the visitors, allowing the Cougars to complete the sweep with a 25-23 win.

As a team, the Knights posted a hitting percentage of 0.050, their worst of the season so far. Marian had 29 kills as a team and 23 attack errors, with Madison Brooks' seven pacing the efforts. Logan Smith led the team with 14 assists and Katie Hardegree had 11, and Emma Lyons led the defense with nine digs. Alison Dreves had six digs in her lone set of work, and Hirchack had three kills in her lone game. Averi Lanman had three total blocks to lead the team. 

Marian will be off for the next week, and will return to action at home on October 11, as they host Huntington University at 7 p.m.

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