LOCK HAVEN, PA. - The Marauders took their bright pink jerseys on the road to visit conference foe Lock Haven. The teams split the first two sets before the Bald Eagles took control, winning two straight to escape with their first victory over Millersville since 2017.
 
Lock Haven got off to a fast start, winning the first three points. The Marauders answered back, knotting the game at nine later in the set. The home team took a five-point lead at 18-13, causing Millersville head coach Brian Smith to call his first timeout. Unfortunately for the visitors, they could only cut the lead to three before the end of the set. 
 
The Bald Eagles stayed one step ahead of the Marauders throughout the beginning of set two, holding a lead of one or two until the visitors tied it at nine. Alex Nava then struck twice in succession, giving Millersville its first lead at 12-10. They held that advantage until a Bald Eagle attack error extended it to four at 21-17. They finished the set on a 7-2 run, finally taking it 25-19 on a kill by Emma Kerwin. 
 
The Marauders stayed hot in the third set, jumping out to an 11-5 lead on the strength of six kills and five Bald Eagle errors. It seemed as if they were in control, but Lock Haven responded with a 15-4 run to take the 2-1 set advantage.
 
What allowed the hosts to come from behind were nine Marauder errors. That 15-4 run was comprised of three Bald Eagle kills, three service aces and those nine Marauder misfires. 
 
Millersville looked to right the ship in the fourth set. It was an intense, back-and-forth affair as the visitors tried to make up for their mistakes and the hosts tried to close it out. The 'Ville acquired a little bit of breathing room on an Emma Ludwig kill to take a 14-11 lead, but Lock Haven tied it up at 19 shortly thereafter. The teams kept pace with each other until the Bald Eagles took both the set and match with a final kill. 
 
The Marauders are back at it tomorrow when they visit Bloomsburg to take on the Huskies at 6 p.m.

COACH BRIAN SMITH'S THOUGHTS

• His overall takeaways from the match: "It was a disappointing loss. Give Lock Haven credit- they had energy and a great crowd. I thought we started set 1 well, our passing and hitting were both good. But when things tightened up late, we had several critical attacking errors."
• "The team hit .230, which most of the time works out well. We are just so young and inexperienced that at critical times in tight sets, we shoot ourselves in the foot. I hope we are learning from this. Young players are hot and cold, if you look from set to set at their numbers you can see that.  Otherwise, it was Taylor's first game back and she had a great night. That was good to see."

• The loss drops Millersville's all-time record against Lock Haven to 13-17. More notably, it snaps a Marauder winning streak of seven matches dating back to 2017. 
• The Bald Eagles improve their PSAC East record to 2-2 with the win and enter into a tie with West Chester for fourth in the conference. With the loss, Millersville falls to 1-3, good for a sixth-place tie with their next opponent, Bloomsburg. 

• After showing signs of improvement over the past few weeks, blocks have again popped up as an issue for this team. Lock Haven recorded nine total blocks to the Marauders' two and controlled the net for most of the match. 
• Taylor Welter returned to her usual form, leading both teams in kills with 15. 
• No Marauder reached double-digits in digs.