The IUS women’s volleyball team lost on Thursday, Oct. 15 against KIAC rival, Asbury University, in a very intense five set match (15-25, 22-25, 28-26, 25-22, 11-15).

The loss snapped the Grenadiers’ seven game winning streak.

The match started out rough for the Grenadiers. They only scored 15 points in the first set. The rest of the match, however, was a lot different.

The second through fifth sets were a back and forth scoring match between the Grenadiers and the Eagles.

The Grenadiers dropped the second set, but rallied back to take the third and the fourth set. In doing so, the Grenadiers took the Eagles to a fifth and final set.

Head coach Eric Brian took a final timeout to prepare his team for the final set.

Brian said he tried to get his team to calm down and not to play to lose, but play to win.

“I told them to stay aggressive but to make good decision,” Brian said.

The Grenadiers jumped out early in the set, then found themselves down 9-11 after the timeout. They would end up losing the last set by only four points.

“This was a good test for our team,” Brian said. “It would have felt a little better if we pulled off the win.”

The offense for the Grenadiers was firing on on cylinders. Three Grenadiers had double digit kills.

Michala Beasley, sophomore outside hitter, had a team-high 16 kills, with most coming from tapping the ball in the open spots of the Eagle’s defense.

The other two players with double digit kills for the Grenadiers were Hannah Joly, freshman outside hitter, with 15 and Katie Fischer, junior middle blocker, with 13.

The Grenadiers had a team total of 65 kills in the match.

“We were close to winning that game,” Fischer said. “I think we played hard enough to do so.”

Fischer is also a part of a front line that continues to block spikes above the net. Most of the points that the Grenadiers got in the final two sets were from blocked spikes.

Fischer said that it can easily change the game around with a block.

The Grenadiers had eight blocks in the match as opposed to only two blocks by Asbury.

Hannah Barker, junior setter, who is second in the KIAC in assists per set with 9.8, had a huge game for the Grenadiers.

Thursday night she had a career-high 56 assists. Barker also finished tied with Caitlynn Pfaadt, sophomore defensive specialist, for the most digs on the team with 16.

Brian said that one of their weaknesses against Asbury was that they fell behind early on. He also said that it isn’t new to this team.

“We have fallen behind early in a lot of games this season,” Brian said.

The Grenadiers will have a chance to redeem themselves against Asbury when they play the Eagles on the road later this month.

IU Southeast is back in action at home on Tuesday, Oct. 20 against Oakland City University.

After that home game, the Grenadiers have nine straight road games. Their next home game won’t be until senior night on Nov. 5 against Cincinnati Christian University.

“We got to stay focused,” Brian said. “Focused on how we want to be playing in the tournament.”