The Dominican University women's volleyball team came up just short on Saturday afternoon at the Igini Sports Forum, falling to the Concordia University Wisconsin Falcons in five sets (18-25, 25-12, 24-26, 25-13, 15-10).  The loss is the sixth straight for Dominican to the Falcons dating back to 2016 and drops the Stars to 15-6 on the season and 4-3 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC).
 
After taking the first and third sets, Dominican had two chances to put the Falcons away and even opened a 6-1 lead in the fifth set, before Concordia Wisconsin went on a 10-0 run, forcing Dominican to use both of its timeouts, and put the match out of reach.
 
"It was a rollercoaster of a match today," said Dominican University assistant coach Peter Maniscalco. "I think we walked away learning a lot about ourselves against a talented CUW team. I do think there were moments we showed some great poise as a team and established a good offensive flow, but they followed it up with a great defensive effort.  I am excited to get back in the gym on Monday."
 
The Stars managed to hit just .039 in the loss, including a negative hitting percentage in each of the second and fourth sets.  Dominican's best offensive performance came in the tightly contested third set, hitting .158 while having to overcome a 24-22 deficit to take a 2-1 lead. 
 
Anastasia Labadessa logged a double-double in the loss for the Stars, collecting 27 assists and 13 digs.  Gabija Sinickaite paced the offense, tallying 16 kills on a team-high 48 attack attempts.  The sophomore was the lone Star in double-digit kills with Gillian Jones managing eight on 41 swings while Keely McCallum finished the afternoon with seven after opening the match with three kills in the first set.
 
For the Falcons, Megan Mayer led the way with 15 kills on 48 attack attempts while Gabrielle Pavlik added 12 on just 28 attempts.
 
Defensively, the Falcons' block set the tone, collecting 14 total blocks.
 
For the Stars, Sarah Lychock led the defensive effort, digging a match-high 29 attacks while McCallum finished with five blocks—one solo and four assisted—at the net.
 
The Stars will look to right the ship next Friday, traveling to Milwaukee to meet the Alverno College Inferno before returning home for a tri-match featuring Illinois Tech and Olivet College at the Igini Sports Forum on Sunday, October 20.