Painesville, Ohio – The Mercyhurst women's volleyball team snapped its longest losing streak of the season, defeating Lake Erie College 27-25, 25-14, 20-25, 25-23 Wednesday evening. The victory was the 19^th of the season, the most in head coach Ryan Patton's tenure and the most since the 2002 team set a school record with 21 wins.

 

Katie Fritz had 11 kills and a career-high 25 digs as Mercyhurst was pushed for much of the night before closing out the match. Lauren Kubinski had a team-high 14 kills and hit .480, while Erin English added 12 kills. Freshman Chelsea Hennigan had a career-high 47 assists and Justine Smith finished with eight kills and six blocks – three solo.

 

Mercyhurst trailed 24-19 in the opening set but scored five straight points and tied the score on an Erin English kill. After a bad set gave Lake Erie another set point, English had another kill that started a string of three consecutive points. Two attack errors by Lake Erie gave Mercyhurst the come-from-behind 27-25 win.

 

Using that momentum, the Lakers jumped out on top quickly and rolled to a 25-14 win in set two, but Lake Erie fought back to take the third set. In the clinching set, Mercyhurst came back from a 21-18 deficit by scoring five straight and winning 25-23.

 

Lake Erie falls to 4-20 on the year and Mercyhurst, ranked No. 4 in the Atlantic Region, improves to 19-11. The Lakers play at Clarion Saturday at 2 p.m. looking for their 20^th win of the season. Mercyhurst beat the Golden Eagles in three sets earlier this year.