MURRAY, Ky. - The Tennessee Tech volleyball team's five match winning streak came to a halt on Friday evening as the Golden Eagles fell to Murray State, 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-17), at Racer Arena. With the loss, Tech drops to 8-13 overall and 7-5 in the OVC while the Racers improve to 6-15 overall and 6-5 in conference play.
After dropping the opening set, 25-17, TTU came back strong in the second stanza and built a 10-7 on an ace by junior Laura Pierce. However, Murray State answered with a three-point run of its own to tie the game at 10-10 before scoring four of the next six points to take a 14-12 lead. Tech kept the set within reach at 20-18, but the Racer attack was too much down the stretch as they captured a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-20 win in set two.
Murray State register kills on its first six points in the third set and never looked back as the Racers jumped out to a 7-3 lead and maintained that advantage throughout the set before closing out the match with a 25-17 victory.
For the Golden Eagles, junior Leah Meffert led the way with a match-high 13 kills to go along with 10 digs for her 15th double-double of the season. Senior Amanda Lindgren finished with eight kills while junior Marie Peddicord added seven.
Junior setter Melanie Culp tallied 25 assists to lead the team, while freshman Madison Comperry also got a chance to run the TTU offense as she handed out six assists.
Densively, senior Katie Kenline made it 19 consecutive matches with double-digit digs as she finished with 11 saves. Culp had a team-high 12 digs as she recorded her ninth double-double of the season.
The Golden Eagles struggled with hitting errors on Friday evening as they committed 25 compared to just 10 for the Racers.
Murray State utilized a balanced attack offensively and did not have a player with double-digit kills, but they had six players with at least five.
Tech, who remains in fourth place in the OVC following the match, will return to action on Saturday afternoon when the team makes its way to UT Martin for a 2 p.m. contest against the Skyhawks.