Box Score

The UW-Parkside volleyball team returned to the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament on Friday morning but had its hopes dashed by a pair of nailbiting sets that went the other way. Drury University fought off a set point in the third and then closed out a two point win in the fourth to end the Rangers season in Indianapolis. The Rangers fell 3-1 (21-25, 25-14, 25-27, 23-25) in the GLVC Tournament First Round and saw their season end at 15-16. Drury advances to take on Lewis University on Friday evening.

Seniors Addie Kramer and Cassy Marx led the Rangers attack with 16 and 14 kills respectively. Kramer also had five blocks while Marx added four. Freshman Jessi Mainczyk had a match-high 17 digs and senior Stacie Bower added 12. Courtney Stack had 20 assists and seven digs in her final match for UW-Parkside.

"I'm very proud of what we achieved this season," said head coach Christine Paciero. "We had great performances by our seniors today, especially Addie (Kramer) and Cassy (Marx). They should all be very proud of what we accomplished this year. We fought hard for each and every point. It just didn't go our way."

The Rangers and Panthers served the opening point at 7:00 a.m. central time and it was Drury who appeared to come out with the most energy. The Panthers went on a 9-3 run to open up a 19-12 lead before Parkside responded with a 6-1 spurt to get within two. Amanda Watson finally finished off the set to give Drury the early advantage.

Parkside capitalized on their momentum at the end of the first set and stormed out in game two scoring the first 12 points of the set. The Rangers had just two kills over that stretch but recorded four blocks to take control of the set. Drury was never able to get the deficit to single digits as the matched was squared at one.

The tension began to mount in the third set as both team gained their footing. Drury got out to a five point lead at 18-13 before the Rangers mounted a comeback and finally evened the score at 23 on a block by Addie Kramer.

After a kill by Ali Rook gave the Panthers the lead, Kramer answered to knot the game at 24. Mainczyk followed with a kill of her own and the Rangers earned a key set point. But Drury was up to the task as Alexis Dutt tied it with a kill before Rook added a kill and a block to score the final three points for the Panthers and give them a 2-1 lead in the match.

The fourth set saw the teams go back and forth before things were decided on the final points. With the score tied at 22, Erica Heim finished off a kill and then combined with Watson on a block ot push the Rangers to the brink.

Marx slammed home a kill of her own to cut it to 24-23 but Sara Borneman finished the final point to send the Panthers to the quarterfinals and end the Rangers season in heartbreaking fashion.

Heim led all players with 18 kills. The Rangers actually out-swung the Panthers, .216-.192. Drury had an advantage statistically in the back row with 73 digs to Parkside's 56.

The loss wraps up the first season of head coach Christine Paciero's tenure at UW-Parkside. She led the program to its first GLVC Tournament appearance since 2003 and an 11-7 record in the league despite significant injury issues. Four starters missed multiple matches this season due to injury. The 11 conference wins was the most for UW-Parkside since going 11-5 in the 1997 season.