Once again, the UW-Parkside volleyball team proved it could play with the best in the Great Lakes Valley Conference on Friday night. Unfortunately the Rangers were unable to finish off the match, eventually falling to first place Indianapolis in five sets (28-26, 21-25, 25-19, 16-25, 11-15). Parkside falls to 10-7 in the league and 14-15 while the Greyhounds improved to 15-2 in the GLVC and 19-6 overall.
 
“It was another great match,” said head coach Christine Paciero. “I'm proud of the way we played but disappointed that we lost. You can't go to five games with good teams and expect to pull it out every time. We've got to learn to close it out.”
 
The Rangers got big nights statistically from a host of players. Bridget Nickel led the way with 21 kills and 10 digs. Addie Kramer had 18 kills to go with five blocks.
 
Stacie Bower was huge defensively with a career-high 37 digs including 26 in the first two sets. Freshman Jessi Mainczyk also had a nice night in the back row with 20 digs. Adrienne Uthe led the play at the net with nine blocks.
 
“Clearly Stacie Bower and Jessi Mainczyk were incredible defensively,” said Paciero. “Our defense was really good. It was our goal to improve defensively and it's exciting to know we've gotten better  and better as the year has gone on.”
 
Kristina Hefferan led the Greyhounds with 18 kills and 18 digs. Amy Oldenburg was the defensive leader with 21 digs of her own.
 
The Rangers grabbed the opening game after fighting off three set points. Four of the final five points of the first came off the block for UWP. Kramer, Uthe, Mainczyk, and Brooke Schowalter equally combined on the four stuffs. Uthe and Mainczyk's block of Kourtney Crawford secured the 28-26 win.
 
After Indianapolis grabbed the second set with a late run, the Rangers stormed back to take the third. They scored eight of the final 11 points thanks in part to three kills by Nickel.
 
From there the 21^st-ranked Greyhounds took matters into their own hands. They cruised in the fourth set and then grabbed an early 6-2 lead and hung on from there to take the match. Indianapolis was nearly flawless in the final two sets with 22 kills and just two errors. They swung .600 in the fifth set.
 
“We made some unforced errors at key times,” said Paciero. “We had an awful start in the fourth and we never got back focused. Give Indy credit. They're a very good team and they were very good at the end.”
 
Parkside will wrap up its regular season on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. against Saint Joseph's. It'll be Senior Day at the DeSimone Gymnasium with the Rangers honoring Bower, Kramer, Cassy Marx, and Courtney Stack.