STORM LAKE - The Buena Vista volleyball team began its final homestand of the regular season on Friday night by hosting Loras in American Rivers Conference play, and after dropping the first set, 25-10, the Beavers bounced back and were strong the rest of the way, but came up on the short end of a five-set thriller inside of Siebens Fieldhouse.

The Beavers had just four kills and nine errors in that opening set while the Duhawks chalked up 14 kills and six errors.  BVU did bounce back with 13 kills in the second set and took control midway through after trailing 13-12.  The team went on to score three straight and four of the next five points to take the lead for good.  It later ran off four straight to take a 21-16 lead.  Sydney McLaren capped things off with one of her match-high 17 kills.

Loras went on to take a 2-1 lead with a 25-21 win in the third set before BVU forced the decisive fifth set with a 25-17 win in the fourth.  Loras used back-to-back ace serves that were perfectly placed to build an early 5-2 lead in that fifth set and led 8-6 as the team's switched sides.  The Duhawk lead grew to 10-6 before the Beavers would score four of the next five points, including an ace serve from Summer Goss to get within 11-10.

From there, the Beavers had three hitting errors as the Duhawks (16-5, 3-0 A-R-C) scored the final four points of the set to claim the match.  It was the third five-set match for BVU in conference play as they dipped to 2-2 in league play.

"That first set is what killed us tonight," said BVU head coach Aubrey Havlichek.  "We came out sleeping and let Loras have complete control.  Take that set away, and I think we had a pretty solid night.  We are struggling to find consistancy at the net both offensively and defensively, but when it's there, it's powerful.  We hope to bounce back against a solid Dubuque team tomorrow."

McLaren, the reining A-R-C Offensive Performer of the Week, had just two attack errors on the night and finished with a strong .306 percentage.  She also had a season-high 26 digs and a pair of blocks.  Kaitie Serkiz followed with 15 kills, but had 12 errors, while taking a team-high 67 total swings.  Hannah Smith was third on the team with eight kills and also chipped in with seven digs.

Taylor Wedemeyer dished out 47 assists to run her season total to 575 and completed a double-double with 14 digs.  She also had three ace serves.  Goss continues her stellar play, defensively in the backcourt, with a team-high 34 digs.  She moves into fifth-place on the programs all-time list and current sits 15 shy of moving into fourth.   Kaylee Nosbisch and Jade Hays each tallied 10 digs.

The Duhakws had three players in double figures in kills, led by Kelly Boge's 14.  Krystal Tranel turned in a match-high 41 digs which is also the highest single-match total in the conference this season.

Buena Vista had its five-match overall win streak snapped with the loss and is now 8-11 overall (2-2 A-R-C).  The Beavers look to close out the home schedule on a strong note as they host the University of Dubuque on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m.  The Spartans picked up a 3-1 road victory at Nebraska Wesleyan on Friday night.