MILLERSVILLE, Pa. -  The Marauders hosted the Lock Haven Bald Eagles with a PSAC East playoff berth on the line. Due to tiebreakers, Millersville needed to sweep the visitors in order to control their playoff destiny. Each of the first two sets went to overtime but the Marauders ended up on the short side of both scores before dropping the third in regulation. 
 
The first set was a neck and neck battle throughout. Millersville and Lock Haven battled back and forth until the Marauders captured an early 10-7 lead. A few points later, they extended that lead to four with kills from Taylor Welter and Emma Kerwin. Up 19-15, Brian Smith saw his team make two receiving errors and called a timeout. The Bald Eagles later tied the game at 22 leading to an Alex Nava kill that glanced off of the net and in for a one-point lead. In overtime, Welter gave the Marauders set point up 26-25 but two Lock Haven aces in a row won the game once it was tied at 26. 
 
The second set was more of the same as the Marauders hoped to prevent their falling out of the playoff picture. The first major advantage in the set belonged to the visitors, as Lock Haven went up by four at 13-9. Millersville responded with a 6-2 run to knot the game back up at 15. Lock Haven immediately grabbed the lead back with a three-point spurt prompting a Smith timeout.  Yet again, the young Marauders responded by knotting the score at 20. With the game sent into overtime once more, Welter's service ace put the hosts up 29-28. They were unable to take advantage, however, as the Bald Eagles claimed the next three points to take the set. 
 
After falling behind 6-0 in the third set, the Marauders made inroads into the Bald Eagle advantage before falling behind by double digits and dropping the set.   
 
The last match of the Marauders' 2023 season will be against Bloomsburg tomorrow, Nov. 11, at 1 p.m.

GAME NOTES

• The Marauders' all-time record against the Bald Eagles drops to 13-18 after the loss. They had won seven consecutive matches coming into the 2023 season but a loss at Lock Haven earlier this year put that to bed. 
• Millersville is officially eliminated from PSAC East Playoff contention, as it now has a 3-10 record within the conference and falls into a tie for seventh. The Bald Eagles strengthened their playoff chances after the sweep as their PSAC East record now sits at 5-8. 

• Emma Kerwin and Taylor Welter led the Marauder attack once again, finishing first and second in kills, respectively. Kerwin ended with 14 and Welter put up 13 in the loss. 
• Emma Ludwig contributed in all phases of the game, adding two blocks, 12 digs and four kills to her 33 assists. 

• On the match: "We were right there.  I told the girls after the match that we actually should have won that first set. We should have won the second set too, if we just think about how those things ended, one ended on a zero pass. It was interesting, because it kind of summarized the entire season for us. We're right there at the end, but then we just make all these errors. I don't want to keep using the excuse of being a young team, but that is the reality of it."
• On his team's mentality heading into tomorrow: "The message in the locker room was, hey, obviously, this is going to be our last match of the season. The girls have done a good job working.  They come in every day to practice and they're a great, great, group of young women. The chemistry outside of volleyball is amazing. We'd obviously like to finish the season out with a win against Bloomsburg, but we really just want to come in and play good volleyball from start to finish."