Duluth, Minn. – The University of Minnesota, Morris volleyball team suffered just their third conference loss today (Oct. 15), dropping a four-setter on the road to league leading St. Scholastica.

St. Scholastica (19-6, 8-0) stayed perfect in UMAC play, winning sets one, three and four by scores of 25-18, 26-24 and 25-20 respectively. Minnesota, Morris (12-11, 5-3) had the match even at 1-1 for a moment after their 25-22 second set win.

The Cougars hit an impressive .343 in the second set, and knocked down a team high 16 kills against just four errors. They also held the Saints to one of their lowest marks of the night, as CSS hit .216 in the loss.

After the second set win, the Cougar defense was able to step it up yet another notch in the narrow overtime loss in the third set. As UMM pushed the final to 26-24, they limited the Saints to a .160 hitting percentage, but eight errors and a .130 mark at the net plagued UMM in the loss.

The Cougars were paced on the night by three players in double figures up front, led by a career high 12 from freshman Nicole Gillespie (Graceville, Minn.). Gillespie took a team high 32 attacks and was joined by Kaylie Clark (Garden Plains, Neb.) and Allie Humphrey (Minnetonka, Minn.) who each finished with 10.

The Saints were lead by heavyweights Paige Hardy and Anna Zyvoloski with a 22 and 21 kills respectively. St. Scholastica finished with 59 kills in the match to 51 for Minnesota, Morris.

The Cougars had three players with over 10 digs, by match's end, including double-doubles from Clark and Gillespie with 14 each. Also in the mix on the back line was Brita Humphrey (Minnetonka, Minn.) with 10.

Mandy Allman (Nevis, Minn.) finished with 26 assists in running the offense.

The Cougars return to action tomorrow (Oct. 16) at Northland in a 1:00 p.m. match-up. In their first meeting, the Cougars swept the LumberJills 3-0.