Purdue Northwest Volleyball Celebrates Senior Day, Falls to Tiffin
HAMMOND, Ind. – Celebrating its 2017 senior class prior to the match, the Purdue University Northwest volleyball team could not put an exclamation point on its Senior Day falling in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) action to Tiffin University (Ohio) in its final home match of the season Saturday at the Fitness & Recreation Center in Hammond, Ind. The Pride dropped the match in three sets by scores of 25-16, 25-16 and 25-16.
In a special pre-match ceremony, the following six seniors were recognized:  middle hitter Cassidy Pennington (Onsted, Mich./Onsted), middle hitter Kayla Elsea (Palmyra, Ind./Crawford County), outside hitter Katie Dermody (LaPorte, Ind./LaPorte), outside hitter Gabrielle Martin (Demotte, Ind./Demotte), defensive specialist Abbe Mullen (Lansing, Ill./T.F. South) and setter Carley Bartolini (Portage, Ind./Portage).
Junior Brooke Ahrens (Covington, Ind./Covington) led the attack for PNW with nine kills and also added nine assists and seven digs. Sophomore Eudora Negri (Munster, Ind./Munster) recorded a team-leading 14 assists, while Mullen led the defensive effort with eight digs. Junior Carissa Jones (Whiting, Ind./Bishop Noll) chipped in six kills and Martin added five.
The first set was tight in the early stages with a kill by Jones tying the score at 11-11. Unfortunately for the Pride, the Dragons closed out the set with a 10-2 run to take an early advantage in the match. Another kill by Jones tied the score at 7-7 early in the second set, but TU slowly built a lead and pulled away late for another 25-16 win. Ahrens had a kill early in the third set to pull PNW to within two, 10-8; but that was as close as it would get the rest of the way as Tiffin won the third set 25-16 as well.
Purdue Northwest (6-23 overall/1-13 GLIAC) closes out its regular season slate next weekend with a pair of conference road matches. The Pride head to Grand Rapids, Mich., to take on Grand Valley State University on Friday, November 10, at 6 p.m. CT. PNW finishes up on Saturday, November 11, with a 1 p.m. CT match against Wayne State University in Detroit.
