ST. AUGUSTINE – No. 25 (AVCA Division II Top 25) Flagler College lost two matches today, 3-0 (25-20, 25-17, 25-21) against the University of Findlay and then falling 3-2 (28-26, 20-25, 18-25, 25-23, 5-15) to Saint Leo University on Saturday at the Flagler Saints Invitational at Flagler Gymnasium.

The University of Minnesota Duluth went a perfect 4-0 while Findlay finished 3-1. Saint Leo posted a 2-2 record while Flagler ended the tourney with a 1-3 mark. Erskine College was the lone team to not win a match and left 0-4.

In the opener, Findlay was able to exact some revenge on Flagler, who defeated them last year at Findlay, 3-2. The Oilers hit an efficient .333 (44 kills and 12 errors on 96 swings) while the defense collected 41 digs and recorded eight total blocks. Findlay held Flagler to a .187 hitting percentage.

"Findlay has a great team that really stresses you with their tempo," said Flagler head volleyball coach Matt Affolder. "I thought Raquel Kulak shined and provided the offensive punch we needed. Our service game really let us down in this match.  We have some tough servers, but I felt like we were a bit reckless and lost track of our line and rhythm which resulted in high errors. We will take errors with aces and tough serving that stresses the opponent's passers, but in this match we struggled.  There is no question Findlay is a Top 25 team with what they showed everyone this weekend and it was great to battle them."

Karlie Redfern led the Saints with 11 kills while Kulak added 10 kills and hit .450 with just one error on 20 swings. She tacked on three total blocks. Tara Savisky tallied 28 assists while Kayla Norelli paced the defense with 11 digs.

Izzy Murphy came off the bench to record a match-high 18 kills and hit .818 on 22 errorless swings for Findlay. Shelby Kin added 10 kills and had three total blocks. Hailee Olson tallied 34 assists while Kara Scherger collected 12 digs.

The nightcap against Saint Leo saw a back-and-forth first set. The Saints were staring down set point, trailing 24-23, but a service error and a bad set by a Lions player gave Flagler a 25-24 lead. Later, with the score tied at 26, a Kulak kill pushed the Saints ahead and she capped it with a block.

Saint Leo hit .317 (18 kills, five errors, 41 swings) in the third set and ended the match hitting at a .526 (11-1-19) clip in the fifth set.

"We challenged our team a little bit after the first three matches of the weekend and they definitely responded with the grit and toughness necessary to compete against a great team," said Affolder. "This match was simply won on top of the net.  Saint Leo is very physical and tested our hands/blocking, and often we were well positioned but we didn't finish. It is definitely frustrating for our team to be in the 20's over and again and fall a bit short, but hopefully we will remember the feeling of the battle and take that into our week of prep before heading down to Daytona Beach next weekend. Once again, Raquel was exactly the go-to player we needed, and I thought Kayla was fantastic in serve receive and was willing to throw her body around to extend rallies with tremendous defense. This tournament was not the results we wanted, but we will definitely take a ton away from what we saw from our opponents and what we learned is demanded of us to compete at the highest level."

Kulak recorded a career-high 18 kills and hit a steady .359 with just four errors on 39 swings. She added four total blocks. Redfern recorded her first double-double of the season with 11 kills and 12 digs. Savisky also notched a double-double with 38 assists and 12 digs. Norelli gathered 20 digs.

The Lions were paced by Ashley Quero who recorded a match-high 23 kills and tacked on eight digs as well as five total blocks. Victoria Omoregie added 17 kills while Anilise Fitzi contributed 12 kills and three total blocks. Reggie Vandevender recorded a double-double with 35 assists and 16 digs. Payton Bellano also recorded a double-double with 32 digs and 11 assists.

Flagler will now play its next 11 matches on the road starting with next weekend's Embry-Riddle Labor Day Invitational at Daytona Beach, Florida. Flagler opens play on Friday (Aug. 31) against Eckerd College at 11 a.m. before closing out the day at 7 p.m. against old Florida Sun Conference rival Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.  

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