CANTON, Ohio – The Slippery Rock University volleyball team opened its time at the Hall of Fame City Challenge in Canton, Ohio with a pair of losses Friday.
 
Slippery Rock (2-4) began the day with a tight five-set loss to host Malone University (4-1) 17-25, 25-21, 25-21, 22-25, 18-16 followed by a 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-16) setback against Seton Hill University (2-3).
 
Chelsie Wheeler paced The Rock over the two matches with 18 total kills and six blocks. Alayna Chizmar matched Wheeler with 18 kills of her own in addition to serving three aces and making 26 digs.
 
Logan Whitaker and Lauren Crytzer rounded out The Rock's top performers. Whitaker recorded 17 kills on an impressive .262 attack percentage in addition to tallying 42 assists and three blocks in the two matches while Crytzer compiled eight blocks.
 
MATCH 1: MU 3 – SRU 2 (17-25, 25-21, 25-21, 22-25, 18-16)
Slippery Rock took the opening set from Malone before the Pioneers captured the following two games only for The Rock to force a fifth set, which was a back-and-forth contest that ultimately went in Malone's favor in a close SRU loss.
 
Wheeler had 13 kills on an impeccable .257 attack percentage all the while posting six blocks against Malone. Chizmar came up with a double-double on career-highs of 12 kills and 16 digs as well as a team-best three aces.
 
Whitaker just missed out on the first triple-double by a Rock player since 2007 after turning in a performance of 33 assists, 17 digs and nine kills. Libero Kate Lachendro helped to spearhead SRU's defensive efforts with 28 digs.
 
Lauren Crytzer (seven kills / five blocks), Abigail Koeller (seven kills, 29 digs) and Stephanie O'Donnell (five kills) rounded out The Rock's leaders against Malone.
 
Malone scored the first four points of the match before Slippery Rock rallied with 22-8 run to take a commanding 10-point edge late in the first set on the way to an eventual 25-17 victory.
 
The Pioneers answered with back-to-back 25-21 victories over the second and third sets. However, The Rock responded with a quality 25-22 win in the fourth set thanks in no small part to a spurt in which they bounced back from a five-point deficit with a set-deciding 13-5 run.
 
Slippery Rock and Malone traded points for the near entirety of the fifth set. SRU took a 16-15 lead, but couldn't quite complete the comeback as the Pioneers secured three consecutive points to capture the set, and the match, with an 18-16 win.
 
MATCH 2: SHU 3 – SRU 0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-16)
A close first-set victory by Seton Hill parlayed with a pair of big runs by the Griffins in the second and third sets proved to be too much for SRU to overcome in its 3-0 loss.
 
SRU led by as many as seven points early in the first set, but the Griffins slowly chipped away at The Rock's lead to eventually force a 22-22 tie. Coming out of a Slippery Rock timeout, Seton Hill then scored three straight points to seal the 25-22 win.
 
The Rock got out to a 10-8 lead in the second set before Seton Hill countered by scoring 17 of the next 25 points to claim a 25-18 win. The third started an evenly-matched contest as Seton Hill clung to just a one-point, 17-16, lead. However, SHU proceeded to score eight consecutive points to clinch a 25-16 match-deciding victory.
 
Whitaker had eight kills on a Rock-solid .226 attack percentage in the nightcap. She also had eight assists and three blocks. Chizmar and Wheeler supplemented the attack with six and five kills, respectively. Erica Selfridge made her fifth start of the season, finishing with a team-high 16 digs.
 
SRU will look to bounce back from Friday's results with two wins Saturday on day two of the Hall of Fame City Challenge. Slippery Rock first plays Fairmont State University at 11:15 a.m. followed by Saginaw Valley State University at 6 p.m.




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