GREAT FALLS, Mont. - The Carroll College Volleyball team saw their season come to a close in the opening round of the 2023 Frontier Conference tournament, falling in five sets to (RV) Rocky Mountain College on Friday afternoon at the McLaughlin Center in Great Falls.

The Fighting Saints (5-22, 0-10) fought until the bitter end, but ultimately came up three points and one set short of knocking off the Batttlin' Bears (20-11, 6-4) in an opening round match for the ages.

The Saints would trail early, with Rocky jumping out to a 1-0 lead following a 25-21 opening set win. Carroll would respond in the second, however, winning 25-23 to even the match at 1-1.

The third frame was Carroll best attacking frame of the day, hitting .233 as a team, but the Bears would top that performance with a .424 hatting percentage of their own to claim a 25-23 set win, and take a 2-1 set advantage.

A resilient Saints squad would battle in the fourth, pulling out a 25-23 set win of their own to even the match and force a deciding fifth set.

Unfortunately for the Saints, their effort would come up just shy, with Rocky claiming the fifth frame 15-12 to take the match and advance to the semifinals.

Mara Lynch (Bozeman, Mont. / SR) and Lexie Gleasman (Chelan, Wash. / SR) each posted 14 kills in their final games as Fighting Saints.

Maddie Wilkes (Pocatello, Idaho / SR) and Jansyn Carrizales (Sunnyside, Wash. / FR) combined for 48 assists, finishing with 25 and 23, respectively.

Julia Carr capped a tremendous campaign with 35 digs to lead the Saints.

Carroll had eight service aces to Rocky's one, but the Bears compiled 12 blocks to the Saints' five.

Rocky's Bella Bryan led all players with 18 total kills.

A frustrating season for the Saints is officially over, and the team will take a break for the remainder of 2023 before hitting the court again in the spring in preparations for a more successful campaign in 2024.

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