The Dominican University women's volleyball team hit the road this weekend, traveling to Mequon, Wisconsin, for the annual Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC)-Iowa Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (IIAC) Challenge, topping the Luther College Norse in five sets in the Stars' opener before falling to the Wartburg College Knights in three sets.
 
In Dominican's first match of the day, the Stars trailed 14-10 in the fifth set before scoring the final six points of the match to knock off the Norse.  Kendyl Todd knocked down a team-high 14 kills in the winning effort while Elin Ream added 13 kills, including four in the fifth set.
 
The Stars hit .181 in the win, tallying 58 kills on 171 total attacks while committing just 27 errors.  Freshman setter Anastasia Labadessa used her abundance of offensive weapons, utilizing six different attackers while doling out 43 assists.  The rookie narrowly missed her second triple-double in as many weeks, adding eight kills of her own to go along with ten digs.
 
Defensively, Megan Parker tallied a match-high 25 digs as Dominican posted 70 digs and 8.5 total blocks to hold the Norse to a .140 attack percentage.  Lauren LaVigne added 12 digs while Mallory Jones finished with 11.  At the net, Stephanie Cole and Ream logged five block assists apiece while Amanda Ricca tallied one solo and two assisted blocks.
 
"The entire match was a battle and we weren't planning on giving up," said Brittany Sisk following the complete effort. "When we were down 14-10 in the fifth, we played like the scoreboard did not exist. We've had some mentally tough practices this week but that moment where we overcame that kind of deficit made every one of those practices worth it."
 
After a two-hour battle in the opener, Dominican stalled in the nightcap, managing just 19 kills on 90 total attacks while committing 19 hitting errors.  Todd's five kills paced the Stars in the losing effort while the Dominican defense could not slow the Knights who managed to hit at a .326 clip with 40 kills on 92 swings.
 
"Unfortunately we ran out of gas against Wartburg," continued Sisk, "but we are absolutely ready to come back tomorrow the same way we started today."
 
The Stars, now 5-8 on the season, continue play in the NACC-IIAC Challenge on Saturday, taking on the Nebraska Wesleyan University Prairie Wolves at 10:00 a.m. before closing out the tournament against the Coe College Kohawks at 2:00 p.m.