DENVER – For two days, the Seattle Pacific Falcons went punch-counterpunch against four of NCAA Division II's best volleyball teams.
 
They just weren't able to land a knockout blow.
 
The Falcons came up short in a pair of four-setters on Saturday to wrap up their trip to the Colorado Premier Challenge, falling 3-1 to No. 4 Missouri-St. Louis (25-18, 18-25, 25-23, 28-26) and to No. 17 Central Missouri (25-22, 16-25, 25-23, 25-18) in the Bronze Bracket at Regis University's Berce Athletic Center. That bracket was for the four third-place finishers in Friday's pool play.
 
In its eight preseason matches (four last week at the Yotes Classic Showcase in San Bernardino, four more this week in Denver, including No. 23 Lewis and No. 5 Concordia St. Paul on Friday), SPU (0-8) battled against seven teams ranked in the national top 25, taking sets off five of them. (The only unranked team on the slate was Biola last Saturday.)
 
"It was tough and we saw a lot of good teams," head coach Jason Rhine said of the Colorado tourney. "I thought we played really well this morning (against Missouri-St. Louis). We made some adjustments and went to a 5-1 (system) and I thought we responded well to that. We tried to find some new options for scoring and were able to find a little more kills per set We put a lot of pressure on the other side and we played a lot of close sets from then on. We just couldn't pull it out at the end of Set 4."
 
Missouri-St. Louis 3, Seattle Pacific 1
 

Allison Wilks finished with a monster hitting match, slamming 15 kills with just one error on 23 attacks for a .609 percentage. Hannah Hair added 10 kills on .381 hitting; Erin Smith and Sydney Perry added nine each. Wilks, Smith, and Hair each had five blocks, and senior setter Emily Tulino racked up a career-high 39 assists. Her previous best was 38, which she reached twice.
 
The Tritons led through most of the opening set, on multiple occasions by as many as seven, thanks to .400 hitting. They then took a 9-5 lead in the second set before SPU went on a 6-0 scoring run, the last five of those with senior defensive specialist Abigail Cunningham on the serve. Missouri-St. Louis got a point back, then the Falcons responded with another four in a row, taking a 15-10 lead.
 
The margin grew to as many as six, but was down to three at 21-18. From there, two kills by Wilks and two Cunningham service aces closed out the set to level it at 1-1.
 
The Tritons turned the tables in Set 3, scoring the last four points after Seattle Pacific had gone in front, 23-21. They then scored the first three points of Set 4 and never trailed. The Falcons faced a match point at 24-23, but a St. Louis bad set tied it at 24-24. A kill by Allison Wilks saved another match point, tying it at 25. SPU survived another one when a Tritons service error tied it at 26-26. then a Tritons service error locked it back up at 26-26.
 
An MSL kill and a Falcons attack error put the final two points and the win on the Tritons' side.
 
Central Missouri 3, Seattle Pacific 1
After dropping the second set, the Jennies trailed just once the entire rest of the day, that at 1-0 to start the third set. They immediately ran off five straight points to go up 5-1. SPU finally pulled even at 16-16, and again at 23-23. Central Missouri notched the final two points to go up 2 sets to 1.
 
The fourth set was never tied, and the Jennies took command with a 4-0 burst to make it 18-11.
 
 

Hair had 11 kills and Wilks finished with nine. Perry had eight kills, and Tulino set up another 35 assists.
 
"We got a lot of good experience against good teams and had a chance for individual players to step up and find new ways to score," Rhine said in assessing the two days in Colorado. "And just mental toughness on defense and blocking – I thought we ended up blocking at lot of high-level attackers.
 
"I thought it prepared us well for some of our teams in conference," he added. "We're still figuring some stuff out for sure, especially on the offensive side. We trued sine different combinations and getting people some experience. We'll keep working, for sure."
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- In her four matches, Hair had 33 kills on .413 hitting, and Wilks had 30 on .254 hitting. Erin Smith added 28 and Sydney Perry 27.
 

-- For the second weekend in a row, Hair got her hands on 20 blocks, giving her 40 for the season. That exactly equals the 40 she had through last year's eight preseason matches.
-- It also put her well beyond 500 blocks for her career. Hair started the weekend with 491 and now has 511.
-- Through the four matches, the Falcons logged 65 total blocks (five solo), an average of 2.50 per set.
-- Speaking of 500, Wilks now needs just eight more kills to reach that many. Perry is 19 away from 500, and Smith needs just 26.
-- Emily Tulino finished the weekend with 102 assists. That gives her 163 for the season and 1,754 for her career.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons open their Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedule next Saturday with a trip to Montana State Billings. First serve is at noon Pacific time.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Colorado Premier Challenge
Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024
Berce Athletic Center
 
BRONZE BRACKET
SEMIFINALS
(No. 4) Missouri-St. Louis 3, Seattle Pacific 1
 
Set scores – 25-18, 18-25, 25-23, 28-26.
 
Service aces – MSL 5 (Foster 2, Jackson 2), SPU 5 (Cunningham 3).
Kills – MSL 52 (Santel 21), SPU 56 (Wilks 15, Hair 10).
Assists – MSL 50 (Bishop 40), SPU 50 (Tulino 39).
Digs – MSL 55 (Weaver 14), SPU 50 (Lopez 16).
Block assists / solo – MSL 10 / 4 solo (Young 2 / 2 solo, Copeland 4 / 0 solo), SPU 18 / 1 solo (Wilks 5 / 0 solo, Smith 5 / 0 solo, Hair 4 / 1 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – MSL 52-23-131—221 (Santel 21-3-45—400), SPU 56-28-150—187 (Wilks 15-1-23—609).
Attendance – 50.
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 0-7.  Missouri-St. Louis 6-1.
 
 
3RD PLACE
(No. 17) Central Missouri 3, Seattle Pacific 1
 
Set scores – 25-22, 16-25, 25-23, 25-18.
 
Service aces – SPU 7 (Cunningham 2, Wilks 2, Tulino 2), CM 1 (Anderson 1).
Kills – SPU 44 (Hair 11), CM 52 (Ziesman 14).
Assists – SPU 37 (Tulino 35), CM 48 (Baer 42).
Digs – SPU 54 (Lopez 12, LaRochelle 10), CM 59 (Little 17).
Block assists / solo – SPU 10 / 3 solo (Hair 3 / 1 solo, Smith 3 / 2 solo), CM 22 / 2 solo (Ziesman 7 / 2 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 44-27-139—122 (Tulino 2-0-6--333, Hair 11-4-24—292), CM 42-22-143—210 (Engel 12-0-21—571).
Attendance – 79.


Records
Seattle Pacific 0-8.   Central Missouri 3-4.
 
Next match
Seattle Pacific at Montana State Billings
Saturday, Sept. 21   Noon PDT
Alterowitz Gymnasium / Billings, Mont.


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