SIOUX CITY, Iowa – The No. 18 Carroll College volleyball team looked poised to upset No. 2 Viterbo (Wis.) but the V-Hawks rallied to defeat the Saints 23-25, 27-25, 25-13, 25-20 dropping Carroll to 0-2 in pool play at the NAIA Championship.
 
The loss eliminates the Saints from advancing out of pool play but Carroll will face the College of the Ozarks Thursday in its final match of the year.
 
Carroll came out on fire and won the first set 25-23, hitting .432 as a team while racking up 18 kills and just two errors. The Saints carried the momentum into the second set and built a 22-17 lead before the V-Hawks rallied back.
 
Viterbo went on a 7-1 run to take a 24-23 lead. Carroll regained a 25-24 lead but the V-Hawks tallied three-straight points to win the second set 27-25.
 
"We had some great momentum in the first set and really got it going in the second," head coach Moe Boyle said. "All of a sudden, you could see it swing Viterbo's way and it went their way fast. We had set point in the second set and couldn't pull it through. We made some errors that cost us."
 
The third set was a dominated by the V-hawks en route to a 25-13 win. The fourth set was much closer but again Viterbo was too much for Carroll and the V-Hawks earned the 25-20 set win and the 3-1 match final.
 
"Set three was a total wash, we couldn't get anything going," Boyle said. "We came back in set four and I feel like we gave them some competition but we couldn't pull it out in the end."
 
The Saints improved their hitting significantly over Tuesday's performance, hitting .289, with 52 kills and just 15 errors. Brielle Bumgarner tallied 16 kills for a .467 hitting percentage while Paige Montgomery had 13 kills, hitting .290. Jonni Dorr tallied 45 assists and Natalie Kassa had a team-high 14 digs.
 
"Our hitters got off to a really nice start and our servers put us in a place to be able to do that," Boyle said. "When the game was tight and Jonni leaned on those hitters, they came through. We depended on our middles a lot today and Brielle Bumarner had a great match. Paige and Holly put some nice balls away from the edges we just needed more and we'll see if we can do that tomorrow."
 
The Saints were much more competitive than yesterday's 3-0 sweep to No. 11 Doane (Neb.) but Boyle believes her team still hasn't played to their abilities yet.
 
"We played a lot better than we did yesterday but at the same time I know that we have not played at the level that we are capable of playing," Boyle said. "We haven't played this poorly all season and we would really like to play our best to end the national tournament."
 
Carroll and the College of the Ozarks are both 0-2 in pool play while Doane and Viterbo are 2-0, meaning the Saints will not advance to the elimination rounds. The Saints lack an opportunity to advance but haven't lost motivation to play well.
 
"We would like to put it all together tomorrow," Boyle said. "We would like to see all 17 players be on the same page and play some great volleyball. There is nothing on the line tomorrow except our pride and I would love to see us get a little bit of that back and put some icing on a really nice season."
 
The Saints and Bobcats will play Thursday at 12 p.m. MST. The game will again be broadcast on 94.9 FM ESPN Radio and streamed on ESPNMontana.com. Live Video will be available via the NAIA Network and live stats are available via Dakstats.