Kansas Wesleyan Women's Volleyball stepped out of conference on Tuesday evening hosting the Doane University Tigers inside Mabee Arena. The Coyotes would come up short, dropping a four-set decision to the Tigers 16-25, 25-15, 23-25, 22-25.
Doane sped out to a 5-0 lead in the opening set forcing a KWU timeout. After the break, Kate Bebout put down a ball to get the Coyotes on the board. Doane pushed its lead to 8-1 before the Coyotes got back within four points at 11-7 on a kill by Gianna Adriaanse.
The Tigers pushed their lead back out to eight at 18-10 and the Coyotes tried again to rally but got no closer than 21-15 the rest of the set.
In the second set, the Coyotes took the early big advantage, racing out to a 10-2 lead on a Kylee Harris kill and three straight hitting errors by Doane. Adriaanse got a kill to make it 12-3, as the Coyotes continued to hold the big lead. A kill by Joey Pennington set up set point for the Coyotes who closed out the set win 25-15.
Doane led 4-2 in the third set but the Coyotes came back with seven straight points behind the serve of Ryleigh Stuhlsatz. A kill by Rylee Serpan made it 9-4 Coyotes forcing a Doane timeout. Doane got back within two at 11-9 but the Coyotes would hold onto the lead extending it to 15-10 on Ella Schmid's service ace. Doane would tie the set at 16 on a KWU hitting error and then take the lead with a kill. Wesleyan answered right back with a Harris kill to tie it up. The Coyotes led 21-19 on a Serpan kill but Doane again tied it at 22-all and would close out the set winning 25-23.
Wesleyan led early in the fourth set, but Doane came back and tied it 5-5. The Coyotes made another run to take a 9-7 lead. The teams bounced back and forth with the lead, neither team leading by more than two points in the set until Doane led 24-21. The Coyotes would get a kill by Serpan to hold off one match point, but could not hold off another as Doane closed things out.
Adriaanse and Harris led the Coyotes with 12 kills each. Serpan had nine and Joey Pennington had eight. Blair Pennington had 23 assists and Stuhlsatz had 13. Tristyn Hedman had 15 digs to lead the Coyotes.
KWU is back in action on Saturday as the Coyotes head to Leavenworth to take on the Saint Mary Spires at 2 p.m. inside the Ryan Sports Center.