AVE MARIA, Fla. --- The Ave Maria volleyball team fell in a heartbreaker to Florida College in five sets on Thursday night. Each team had multiple match points in the fifth set before the Lady Falcons went on to take the set 18-16. The Lady Gyrenes drop to 10-3 on the season as they ready to begin conference play on Friday night at Warner.
 
GAME RECAP
 

• The Lady Gyrenes got off to a slow start in the opening set, falling behind 9-3 and were forced to call a timeout. The Blue and Green battled the rest of the game but weren't able to pull even in the set, getting as close as four, 24-20, before Florida College was able to close out the set, 25-20.
• It was a similar start for Ave Maria in the second set, with Florida College jumping out to a 10-3 lead. After winning five straight points on Veronika Garcia's serve, another five-point burst on Monique Rivers' serve brought the match even at 17-17. Trailing 19-18, a Rachel Schultz service ace tied the game at 19 before three more points on her serve gave the Blue and Green a 22-19 advantage. Florida College pulled to within one, 23-22, before AMU was able to win the final two points and take the set 25-22.
• The Lady Gyrenes took control of the third set early on, leading by six, 8-2, ten points into the game. After AMU extended its lead to nine, 20-11, Florida College began to chip away at the Lady Gyrenes' lead. Leading by three, 22-19, Ave Maria got kills by Lauren Howell and Hannah Wurster to get to set point before an attack error by the Lady Falcons gave the third set to the Lady Gyrenes, 25-20.
• A close set early on, the Lady Falcons won eight straight points to take a commanding 19-8 lead in the fourth set. Florida College went on to win the game 25-15 to force a fifth and deciding set.
• Playing in their first fifth set of the season, the Lady Gyrenes rallied from a couple points down to tie the game at 11-all. Still tied at 13-13, a kill by Jada Spano gave Florida College its first match point. The Blue and Green were able to continue the match on a kill by Lexy Smith and then took a 15-14 lead on a kill by Marie Mendez to give AMU its first match point. After the two teams exchanged points, Florida College saved a second match point to tie the game at 16-16. The Lady Falcons took the final two points to take the set 18-16.

 
STAT LEADERS
 

• Both teams played at a high level for the duration of the match with Florida College holding a slim advantage in hitting percentage, .169-.164. The Lady Falcons had 59 kills compared to 54 by AMU. The Lady Gyrenes held a 73-65 advantage in digs.
• Lexy Smith led all players with 20 kills. The NAIA leader in hitting percentage coming into the match, Lexy committed just five hitting errors to finish with a .395 hitting percentage in the match. She also tallied eight total blocks.
• Hannah Wurster finished with double-digit kills with 12 while Taylor Wojciechowski added six kills for the Lady Gyrenes.
• Wojciechowski finished with four total blocks and Wurster added three blocks for the Lady Gyrenes.
• Lauren Ruby and Veronika Garcia each reached 20 assists on the night, finishing with 23 and 20, respectively.
• Keke Smith led AMU with 17 digs. Rachel Schultz and Monique Rivers each tallied 12 digs while Jessica Schein added 10 digs for the Blue and Green.
• Rachel Tharp led three Lady Falcons with double-figure kills with 16. She also recorded 11 digs.
• Abbey Rouch tallied a match-high 51 assists and a team-leading 13 digs for Florida College.
• Savannah Gorman had 11 kills and five total blocks for the Lady Falcons.

 
UP NEXT
 

• The Lady Gyrenes conclude a three-match week on Friday night when they travel to Lake Wales to face Warner in both teams' conference openers. The match is set to begin at 7 p.m. Live stats and live video will be available for the game and the links can be found on the Ave Maria Athletics website.