Springfield, OH – Pushing ninth-ranked Millikin to a fifth set turned out to be the highlight of the weekend for the Clarkson University Volleyball team as a grueling schedule in Ohio saw the Golden Knights come up empty at the Wittenberg Tournament following losses to Ohio Northern and the Big Blue of Millikin.

The Golden Knights dropped to 5-6 on the season with the losses, while Ohio Northern improved to 8-2 and Millikin jumped to 7-1.

In the opening match of the day, the Golden Knights struggled against another top rated offense as the Polar Bears struck for 44 kills with a .274 hitting percentage, taking a three setter from Clarkson 25-19, 25-15, 25-20.

The opening set against Ohio Northern saw the Polar Bears use their size to gain an early lead, including a stretch of three blocks against Clarkson that put ONU up 8-3 early. That did a number on Clarkson's psyche, as the Knights later committed four errors in a five-point stretch to fall behind 15-8. From that point, the Knights pulled within five on four occasions, but could never muster enough offense to get back into the game.

The second set saw Clarkson settle in on offense and reduce its mistakes, but Ohio Northern did the same. Clarkson trailed by one early (6-5), but four kills and an ace saw the Polar Bears push their lead to seven. Though the Knights trimmed the deficit by a point a few moments later, two more kills and an ace allowed Ohio Northern to double up Clarkson 18-9, and the Green and Gold could never get closer than nine the rest of the set.

At the start of the third, it appeared as if senior Rachael Aird would single-handedly assure that Clarkson would push the match to a fourth set. Of Clarkson's first eight points in the set, Aird delivered four kills and a solo block to put the Knights up by two. The Polar Bears would rally when Aird left the court, but when she returned, Aird produced a kill and an ace, and she was followed by a Rachel Reusch kill to make it 18-16 in Clarkson's favor. The Polar Bears took a timeout to regroup, and it proved to quiet Clarkson while reinvigorating the Ohio Northern effort. Out of the break, the Polar Bears got two kills, an ace and a block to take the lead, and three more kills down the stretch put the match out of reach for the Knights.

Reusch finished with a .571 hitting percentage on 14 kills and only two miscues in 21 swings, while Aird produced 10 kills, two aces and a solo block. Kate Isaksen had 16 digs and Kendall Cheval added 12 digs. Jillian Saenz enjoyed a double-double effort with 38 assists and 13 digs.

The key statistic that kept the Knights in their second match of the day against Millikin, which the Big Blue won 25-22, 24-26, 24-26, 25-17, 15-8, was their opponents' inability to get the ball between the lines on serves. Though the Big Blue finished with nine aces, Clarkson was the recipient of 27 service errors in the match, accounting for a solid portion of its points (27 of 99).

Millikin led for all of the first set, save for the first few points, but Clarkson just sat back and let the Big Blue make mistakes to get them back in to the game. Of Clarkson's last 10 points, six came on unforced errors by Millikin. However, the Big Blue had enough at the end to hold on for a 25-22 win.

From first viewing, the second set would appear to have been a back and forth affair, which it was, but it wasn't from offense. The two teams combined to make 19 errors in the set and neither hit positive in the game. Down by three (22-19), Clarkson took advantage of a pair of Millikin miscues and then tied things up with a kill from Rachael Aird. The senior added two more kills down the stretch to make sure that the Knights stayed in it, and Clarkson capitalized on a block from Aird and an unforced error to end the set.

Set number three was another close one, but both teams were much better on offense in the middle stanza. It was even throughout as neither team ever had more than a three-point edge. The two teams traded points down in the waning points and Millikin had a set point at 24-23, but a service error gave Clarkson new life. Another hitting error gave the Knights their first match point and they took advantage with a kill from Aird.

Unfortunately, Clarkson could maintain its momentum into the fourth and fifth sets. Clarkson hit negative in the fourth set (7-8-36) and lost by eight and in set number five the Knights gave up nine points on hitting errors to allow Millikin to escape.

Clarkson's offense was distributed pretty evenly against the Big Blue with five players recording six kills or more. Junior Savannah Peters led the team with eight, while Rachel Reusch and Rachael Aird each added seven, with Aird also contributing five solo blocks. Meghan Edmund had six kills and 23 digs and Kendall Cheval also had six kills to go along with 16 digs. Kate Isaksen also chipped in 18 digs and Jillian Saenz had 27 assists.