LEWISTON, Idaho – Junior right side Aly Sauer had a career night, tallying nine kills and hitting a match high .471, but it wasn't enough as the Lewis-Clark State College volleyball team fell to Whitworth University 3-1 (25-19, 25-21, 14-25, 25-19) in the Activity Center on Tuesday night.
 
The loss drops the Warriors to 6-5 on the season with three losses coming at home. Whitworth improves to 8-3 overall.
 
LCSC dominated in almost every area in the stat sheet except two: matches won and ball handling errors. The Warriors outhit the Pirates .247 (53-17-146) to .197 (48-20-142) while compiling nine total blocks to zero for the visitors, however, 12 ball handling errors and nine service errors did them in.
 
"Our mental toughness was really tested tonight and we didn't play well as a team," said Warriors Head Coach LaToya-Harris Alexander. "There were some tough calls by the officials, but that's not an excuse. There were times we could have produced and we had bad serves in key situations, that can't happen. We talk about 'one team, one goal' and when we don't play together, we can't reach our goals. We learned a lot from tonight and we'll get better from this."
 
Sauer was a key piece of the offense in the loss, tallying nine kills on 17 attempts with just one error while also adding two blocks and a pair of digs. Kennadie Clute ran her double-digit kill streak to 24 consecutive games and 40 in two seasons with a team-high 11 kills to go with 15 digs and four blocks. Stephanie Ovitz added 10 kills and 11 digs while Rachel Gregg continued to play great defense with 16 digs and eight kills.
 
"Aly's worked really hard from the spring to get to where she is today. I'm very pleased to see her not only focus on her block but her offense as well. Her energy was also really high tonight, now we just need to respond to that energy and keep it going," added Harris-Alexander.
 
It was a rather unimpressive start for the 25th-ranked Warriors, falling behind 12-4 early in set one. LCSC was able to cut the deficit to two, 16-14, scoring six of seven points, bookended by Katie Barton kills. However, a four-point run by the Pirates all but ended the comeback as the teams traded side-outs the rest of the way.
 
It seemed Lewis-Clark State woke up in set two, jumping out to a 6-3 lead, but Whitworth used a four and five point run en route to scoring 15 of the next 25 points for a 21-13 lead. The Warriors responded by scoring eight of 10 points, including three straight kills by Sauer, to make it 23-21. A Whitworth timeout broke the momentum and the Pirates closed the set with a pair of kills.
 
Set three was all LCSC as the Warriors hit .300 in the set with 13 kills on 30 chances while Whitworth hit minus-.067 with just five kills in the set. It was close early as unforced errors kept the Pirates in the set, but a Pirates service error put LC ahead 10-8 and sparked a five –point rally for the Warriors. Whitworth struggled offensively as LCSC rolled to a 25-14 win with the final two points coming via blocks by Justine Cota, Clute and Ovitz.
 
The fourth set was much more competitive early with ties of 7, 9 and 11, but the Warriors again faltered. With an 11-9 lead, an LC service error gave the Pirates the service and they scored 14-of-18 points to take a commanding 23-15 lead. Clute, Sauer and Ovitz tallied kills and a Whitworth attack error made it 24-19, but the ninth service error of the night for the Warriors ended the match.
 
The loss drops the Warriors to 0-4 in matches won in the four sets and LCSC is just 1-6 in the fourth set of a match. On the other side, LCSC has yet to be swept in 2016, winning all four matches decided in three sets while going 2-1 in five set matches.
 
The Warriors return to conference play on Friday, Sept. 23 when they travel to Billings, Mont. to face Rocky Mountain with the match scheduled for 6 PM PST. You can watch the game live here with stats available here.