The Oglethorpe volleyball team fell to the visiting Centre Colonels Saturday at the Schmidt Center, engaging in a tight and competitive first set before falling to the visitors by wider margins in the final two sets. The result drops the Stormy Petrels to 5-16 on the season and 0-9 in SAA play.

The first set was a tight, back-and-forth affair. The Petrels pushed out to a 10-6 lead and were looking to assert control of the set, but the Colonels came back to tie the score at 11-11. The two teams traded points for awhile from there and the score was tied 15-15. Centre began to pull away, though, building a 23-18 edge in the set. The Petrels responded by fighting back to tie the score at 24-apiece, but Centre finished the final two points of the set to win it, 26-24.

That proved to be Oglethorpe's best chance to win one of the three sets. Centre came back in the second and built a large lead, first 12-5 and then pushing it out to 19-10. The Petrels responded by winning five points in a row to cut the Centre lead to 19-15, but the Colonels pushed it out from there, winning six consecutive points of their own to take the set 25-15.

Centre continued their momentum in the third set, pushing out to a big early lead. They led 15-8 before Oglethorpe responded, cutting the lead to 16-12. Another Colonel mini-run put them up 21-12, but the Petrels came back with a 4-1 run to cut the lead to 22-17. Centre put it away from there, however, finishing the set 25-17 and the match, 3-0.

Freshman outside hitter MaryAnn Smith led the squad with 12 kills on the afternoon. Freshman setter Hannah Masiongale passed out 31 assists to lead the squad while freshman defensive specialist Lexi Grams led with 15 digs. Freshman libero Savannah Grove added 11 digs to the ledger while Masiongale contributed 10.

"I thought we played tremendous volleyball in the first set," said Head Coach Richie Tang. "However, the summary for our close sets all year has been that we have to be a little sharper to close them out. Volleyball is such a momentum game and we just failed to match the Centre point runs in the second and third sets. I was very happy with the play of Santreece Stephens, Ashlee Tolbert and MaryAnn Smith as outside hitters. They did a fantastic job, as did Hannah Masiongale distributing to them."

The Petrels will be right back in action Sunday afternoon when they welcome SAA opponent Sewanee to the Schmidt Center at 1 p.m.