Panthers fall short, suffer rare home defeat

ORANGE, Calif. - The Chapman University women's volleyball team rallied from a two-game deficit to force a decisive fifth game, but couldn't complete the comeback, falling to North Park University (Ill.) 25-18, 27-25, 19-25, 18-25, 15-11 at the Hutton Sports Center on Thursday night. The loss was only the second this season the Panthers have suffered at home.

In what proved to be a pivotal second game, Chapman (14-11) took an early lead only to fall behind 17-13 midway through the contest. The Panthers fought back to even the score several times but were never able to recapture the lead and found themselves down 2-0.

Junior OH Kelly Wierema (seven kills, seven digs) gave Chapman a shot in the arm off the bench and helped the Panthers win the next two games, along with offensive support from senior MB Jill Felger (15 kills) and junior OH Lyndsey Cargile (team-high 19 kills).

However, in the fifth game, freshman OH Amber Walker served two of her five aces to give North Park (19-10) a late lead and senior OH Yaifeh Chafeh sealed the win with her 19th kill to give the Vikings their second victory of the day. North Park had earlier defeated La Sierra in Riverside on Thursday afternoon.

The loss comes despite several career highs set by Chapman players. Cargile's 19 kills set a personal best and junior libero Linda Ly equaled her career high with 43 digs in a match for the second time in as many weeks. Ly becomes the only player in school history to reach 40 digs in a match three times. Also, freshman setter Kathleen Dude earned a career-high 55 assists and added a pair of service aces in her first career start.