LA PLUME, Pa. – The Wilkes women's volleyball team went to extra points with Keystone College Friday night, but ultimately fell short in their season-opening match against the Giants 3-2 (19-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-18, 14-16).

Keystone had two key runs that secured them the first set 19-25, the first a 4-0 run to go extend their early set lead from 3-4 to 3-8 and the second a five-point streak to take an 11-15 to 20-11 en route to the set victory.

Down 0-4 early in the first set, the Colonels came back to equalize at 7-7 spurred on by two Sierra Hines (Wilkes-Barre, PA/Holy Redeemer) service aces and a kill. The teams traded points back and forth for the rest of the set, but Wilkes found themselves down 20-22 late. Wilkes then went on to score five of the last six points led by two kills from Alexa Cassel (Mount Joy, PA/Lower Dauphin) to take the set 25-23.

Wilkes led into the middle of the third set with a 16-14 lead, but a massive nine-point run by Keystone turned the tides and gave them a 16-22 advantage they would not let go of to take the third set.

The Colonels started the fourth set on fire with an 8-2 lead helped by five service aces courtesy of Cassel and Kendra Kalp (Somerset, PA/Rockwood), but the game was quickly equalized as Keystone went on an 8-2 run of their own to tie the game at 10. Up 18-16, the Colonels secured a fifth set with another 8-2 run to take the set 25-18. Hines and Ava Wahlers (Coudersport, PA/Coudersport) both had two kills and Kalp put up her third ace of the set during the run.

In the fifth set, Keystone got out to an early 4-7 lead and reached match point with the score 10-14. Wilkes were able to come back late thanks to three Keystone errors and an ace by Jenna Baron (Nanticoke, PA/Greater Nanticoke Area) to tie the game at 14. Unfortunately for Wilkes, Keystone put two straight points on the board to take the win.

Hines led Wilkes in kills with nine followed by Alexis Reedy (Palmyra, PA/Palmyra Area) and Baron with eight each. Cassel led the team in assists with 19, while Kalp led in digs with 14.

Taylor Hallam led Keystone in kills with 11, Elise Burke led in assists with 18, and Catie Woolf led the team defense with 30.

The Colonels take the court next on Thursday, September 5 as they travel to John Jay College for a 7:00 p.m. match.