California (Pa.) Box Score
Upper Iowa Box Score

The UW-Parkside volleyball team dropped two matches on Saturday and completed the Ferris State University Invitational with an 0-4 record. The Rangers lost the opener to California University of Pennsylvania, 3-0 (19-25, 22-25, 18-25) before falling to Upper Iowa, 3-1 (9-25, 25-23, 18-25, 24-26).
 
“I actually felt we got better as the weekend went on,” said first-year head coach, Christine Paciero. “We discovered some things about our team. We learned a little bit about who can play and who's ready to contribute set in and set out. This first weekend is always a lot about finding what your best lineups are and I think we did that.”
 
A 10-4 run midway through the first set helped California (Pa.) take the first set before a highly contest second went against the Rangers as well. A Caroline Langer kill knotted the score at 20 before California tallied five of the set's final seven points to take control of the match. Parkside fell behind early in game three and was unable to recover as the Vulcans completed the sweep.
 
Langer and Addie Kramer led the Ranger attack with seven kills against California.
 
In the second match of the day, UW-Parkside claimed a tight second set to even the match at one. After UIU took the third for a 2-1 lead, the Rangers seemed poised to send the match to a decisive fifth set with a 24-20 lead. The Peacocks however, answered with six straight points to steal the win.
 
Kramer and Bridget Nickel each had 10 kills in the finale. Courtney Stack and Cayla Flood both had 17 assists.
 
Despite the losses Paciero was pleased with some of the things she saw … especially from a few of her newcomers.
 
“Work rate-wise Bridget Nickel and Jessi Mainczyk worked really hard and I was impressed with their level of intensity,” said Paciero. “Addie Kramer was a consistent performer all weekend and Courtney Stack was as well. Everyone has room to improve though and get better and I think we will.”
 
The Rangers will now return home to play three straight matches in the DeSimone Gymnasium. UW-Parkside takes on St. Francis on Thursday night before Kentucky Wesleyan comes in Friday to open the GLVC schedule.
 
“We played some good teams in this tournament and we didn't play well in some big points,” said Paciero.  “We were disappointed with the weekend but I'm still very optimistic. You see a lot of crazy scores on these first weekends and three weeks later everyone is a different team. We found some freshmen that I think can play and I'm excited. We're looking forward to getting back in the gym and getting back to work.”