ROCHESTER, Mich. — The Oakland University volleyball program opened its homestand with a three-set loss to Milwaukee (21-25, 23-25, 16-25) on Thursday evening inside the Athletics Center O'rena.
UW-MIL (11-6, 5-0) improved to 5-0 in Horizon League play with the win, while the Golden Grizzlies (9-7, 3-2 HL) dropped their second-straight conference contest.
Graduate senior
Jamie Walling paced OU with nine kills on 23 attempts, good for a team-high .304 hitting percentage. She added a team-leading 15 digs and two blocks. Redshirt freshman
Patti Cesarini notched nine kills to go along with four digs and two blocks. Defensively, senior
Kerra Cornist posted a match-leading six blocks.
As a team, Oakland bested the Panthers in blocks (9-to-2) and service aces (3-to-2) but fell behind in kills (52-to-30), assists (50-to-30), and digs (62-to-50).
The opening set between OU and UW-MIL was tightly contested, with 11 ties and six lead changes. The period was knotted up at 18-all, but the Panthers made noise with a late 7-3 run to clinch a 25-23 set victory. Cesarini led the attack with four kills, while Cornist tallied three of her six blocks in the period.
Oakland found itself in contention in the following set with the score tied, 8-8. However, the Panthers found comfort with a 6-0 run, resulting in a 14-8 deficit for the Golden Grizzlies. OU responded with a late 4-0 run to even the period at 19-all. Despite rallying back, Milwaukee merely came out on top, 25-23, to go up two sets to none. Walling was at her best with six kills on 12 tries (.500 hitting percentage) to go along with four digs and one block. Oakland totaled four of its nine blocks in the set as well.
UW-MIL led for the entirety of the third set, resulting in a match-clinching 25-16 victory. Milwaukee's Carmen Heilemann was the difference-maker in the period with eight kills. Meanwhile, OU had a total of eight kills on 30 swings (.167 hitting percentage).
The Golden Grizzlies will return to the O'rena tomorrow evening against UIC. First serve is set for 6 p.m.
Match Highlights
#GrizzVision with Rob Beam
