HELENA, MONT. –  This is a case where one telling statistic did tell the story of the night.

Despite collecting more kills, assists and digs, the Lewis-Clark State College women's volleyball couldn't overcome its hitting errors and fell to No. 17^th-ranked Carroll College 25-13, 25-23, 23-25, 25-19 in Frontier Conference play on Friday night.

Although LC did have the edge in a number of stat categories, the difference came in hitting percentage where the Warriors hit .096 in the match with a season-high 35 hitting errors. The previous season-high in hitting errors was 34, which came in the Warriors' last match, a five-game win over Whitworth.

The .096 hitting percentage was the second-lowest of the season for the Warriors, who have struggled in that category as of late. The team entered the night with a .216 hitting percentage.

Even with those numbers, LCSC had advantages of 51-48 in kills, 48-39 in assists and 82-79 in digs.

"This was a rough match because I saw moments of my team the way they can play," LCSC coach LaToya Harris-Alexander said. "We have been working on being more consistent in practice, but we are having trouble applying that over to a match. Carroll also had 16 blocks and if you do not recover, that counts as an error. That's something we need to stay disciplined in doing as well."

The loss knocked LCSC to 7-11 on the season and 2-6 in conference play, while league-leading Carroll improved to 18-5 and 6-2. One of Carroll's league losses came in a five-set thriller to LCSC at the Activity Center in September.

In the first game, Carroll took advantage of LCSC hitting woes early as the Saints turned a 3-1 deficit into a 9-6 lead. From there, the Saints outscored LCSC 16-7 thanks to seven Warrior hitting errors and one set error to roll to the victory. LCSC hit a negative-.094 in the match with nine kills and 12 hitting errors.

Carroll never trailed in the second game and appeared to pull away with a 24-18 lead. The Saints held serve for game point, but the Warriors rallied with five straight points. Senior Kennadie Clute scored four of LCSC's five points with kills, but an attack error gave the Saints the win.

"The one thing I'm very proud of is how defiant we were," Harris-Alexander said. "We had a huge deficit in the second set and came back and almost won it. And we were able to roll that over into the third set and win it."

The Warriors had a match-low six hitting errors in the third set and hit .191 in their lone game win. The Warriors had the lead early in the see-saw game and led by as much as three points on four occasions, but Carroll fought back to take an 18-17 advantage. Carroll's last lead was 21-20, and with the contest tied at 23, LCSC used a kill by Rachel Gregg and a set error to claim the win. Gregg was seeing her first playing time in nearly a month after being sidelined with bursitis and a deep bone bruise.

Unfortunately, the Warriors couldn't sustain their momentum as Carroll was able to gain a quick 9-2 lead in the fourth game and roll from there.

LCSC finished with eight or more attack errors in three of the four games. In comparison, Carroll finished with just one game with more than five attack errors. The Saints had 19 hitting errors and hit .195 for the match.

Clute finished with a match-high 21 kills and added 14 digs, while Gregg added 11 kills and a match-high 22 digs. Stephanie Ovitz added seven kills and 16 digs. Amber Hillestad chipped in 25 assists.

"It's hard right now because in this program, you do not lose and it's tough to be in the situation we are in," Harris-Alexander said. "Players can lose confidence. We just need to believe in each other and keep working hard."

The Warriors have a short turnaround time as they traveled to Butte, Mont., after Friday's match where they will face No. 23-ranked Montana Tech on Saturday at 1 p.m.  The Warriors play four of their final five matches on the road with their final home contest this Thursday against Montana Western.