ST. CHARLES, MO. - The Lindenwood women's volleyball team's historic Division I season came to an end in the OVC Semifinal with a 2-3 loss to Tennessee State on Friday afternoon.

"Obviously, we are disappointed with the outcome, but not the effort," said Head Coach Will Condon. "We had our opportunities and played well enough to put ourselves as close as you can get to winning. Give credit to TSU, they kept making all the plays that they had to make.  They did a good job of changing their line up to find a match up that worked for them."

OVERVIEW
The Lions stunned the Tigers in the first set, putting together both a deadly attack and clean team defense that carried them to a 25-15 victory. 

The second set started off strong as well, with Lindenwood keeping their foot on the gas until things were 17-13. The Tigers were able to close in a bit, going on a five-point run to test the Lions late in the set. Despite things being forced into overtime, Lindenwood was able to secure the second set victory by a score of 29-27 in a true display of grit. 

Lindenwood was dominant in the third set, knocking down three points right off the bat to catch Tennessee State off guard yet again. Once the Lions were leading 10-4, however, Tennessee State began to close the gap again, putting things as close as 10-7, but the Lions held them off with ease. It wasn't until Lindenwood's 21-18 lead that things very quickly became 21-21, and Tennesee State was able to flip the script, hanging on to ultimately come back and win the set 23-25.

Tennessee State was able to ride the momentum through the entirety of the fourth set, messing up the Lions' rhythm with their fight from behind. This time, Lindenwood fell by a final score of 18-25, and it turned into a five setter. 

Things were back and forth yet again, with the biggest lead held by either team just being three points at any given time. The Lions were down 8-10, came back to make it 10-10, and were down 10-12 before calling a timeout. The Tigers made things 10-14 real quickly, but a kill from Madilyn Dement kept the Lions in it at 11-14. Amber Schade then got her first action of the match when the stakes could not have been higher. The junior knocked down a great serve that forced a Tiger error, helping the Lions make it 12-14. Schade served another tough ball for Tennessee State to handle right after, but after a hard fought rally from both teams, Tennessee State finally got the game-winning kill. 

In tonight's historic match, team-leading performances came from Mackenzi Sifuentes, who tallied 17 total kills and the best hitting percentage for the Lions with a .350 on 40 total attempts. Taylor Gentemann was right on her heels with 16 kills and a .333 hitting percentage on 33 total attempts. Abby VanBuskirk put up a strong 55 total set assists, while Jessie Seidel led in the digs category with 21 overall. Sifuentes and Madilyn Dement each put up three total block assists, while Sifuentes and Seidel knocked down two service aces a piece. 


"It's hard because we really felt like these last few matches we were making so much progress and taking all the we have learned this season and applying it," said Condon. "When you step back and look at the season as whole we really did not know what to expect. The main goal of the team was to show everyone what Lindenwood Volleyball can do and I believe we accomplished that goal."