Marshalltown, IA—The Marshalltown Community College women's volleyball team dropped a first set thriller and could not recover as the Northeast Community College Hawks swept the Tigers 3-0 on Wednesday night at the Student Activity Center. MCC falls to 18-16 overall on the year and 3-5 in Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) play.

The Hawks held an early lead on MCC in the opening match but the Tigers kept things interesting. After MCC rallied to tie the set at 15, both sides exchanged leads until Katelyn Yauslin (Cedar Rapids, IA/Alburnett) came up with back-to-back kills to give MCC a 23-21 lead. The Hawks recovered and scored the next three points to regain the lead but Miranda Smith (Albion, IA/Marshalltown) came up with one of her nine kills to tie the set at 24.

The Tigers continued to battle from behind as the Hawks held leads of 25-24, 26-25, and 27-26. MCC refused to give up as Yauslin came up with a critical block to give the Tigers a 28-27 advantage. It was the Hawks who prevailed though, scoring the next three points to go up 1-0.

Northeast used the momentum to jump out to a 12-7 lead in the second set. Trailing 18-9, Meghann Cole (Des Moines, IA/West Des Moines Valley) sparked a run with a kill as MCC scored nine of the next 13 points. Northeast was able to hold off the comeback and took the second set 25-20.

Again the Hawks held an early lead in the third set but MCC was able to tie things up at 14. Northeast pounded out the next six points to go up 20-14. The Tigers cut the deficit in half with three straight points of their own, but again the Hawks held on down the stretch to complete the sweep.

Yauslin paced the Tigers with a team-high 12 kills on the night. Sam Hinrichs (Ankeny, IA/Ankeny) tallied 21 assists, three kills, and 15 digs.

With the loss, the Tigers are now tied with Northeast with a 3-5 record in league play. MCC sits in eighth place, a half-game behind Iowa Lakes who also own the tiebreaker with the Tigers.

MCC has three conference games remaining. The Tigers host Southwestern Community College in their next game on Oct. 23 before traveling to Southeastern Community College and Des Moines Community College to close out the regular season.