By By SCOTT NOVAK / Dowagiac Daily News
First-year coach Teri Tucker called it the "worst defense we've played all year" in referring to her squad's 17-21, 11-21 and 11-21 loss to visiting Edwardsburg Monday night.
Dowagiac looked totally out of sync against the Lady Eddies, who improved to 13-2-7 on the season with the victory.
Dowagiac and Edwardsburg used rally scoring, which the state of Michigan will switch to next season.
With points being scored on every serve, it was important for both teams to play good defense as well as perform well on offense.
Edwardsburg was able to do that, Dowagiac wasn't.
While the first game was fairly competitive, the final two games were not.
Edwardsburg continually pounded the ball at the Chieftains and dominated the net.
Dowagiac saw several players return to the line up after missing games due to the Miss Dowagiac pageant.
However, the Chieftains were without senior defensive specialist Jami Lutz, who is nursing a thumb injury.
When asked how much that hurt the team, Tucker responded by saying that Lutz is one of the top defensive players.
Statistically for the Chieftains Jenny Pilot had six kills.
Erica Knapp and Sarah Luthringer were among the top servers on the night for Dowagiac.
Defensively Brianne Reist played well according to Tucker.
Edwardsburg was led by Kate Habicht's eight kills, while Shelley Roberts and Jessica Rafalski had six and five kills respectively.
Shana Stoops also had five kills.
Rafalski also led the team in blocks and aces with two each. Sarah Lange led the team in assists.
The Chieftains return to action on Wednesday as they hit the road for the remainder of the season.
Dowagiac travels to Niles on Wednesday night to take on the Lady Vikings in a Big 16 Conference West Division match.
Dowagiac will then travel to Hamilton on Saturday for an invitational tournament.
Play is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m.
JV volleyball
Dowagiac's junior varsity squad was the lone team to come away with a victory Monday night against the Lady Eddies.
Dowagiac defeated Edwardsburg 15-9 and 15-6.
The game was played under the current rules.
Jill Billingham led Dowagiac with four kills, while Ashley Willis had a team-high 14 assists.
Dowagiac got nine points and two aces from Kristin Schinski, while Beth Tomczak had five digs.
Dowagiac is now 11-10-1 on the season.
The Chieftains will travel to Niles on Wednesday. The match will begin at 6 p.m.
The JV will compete in the LMC invitational on Saturday.
Freshman volleyball
Edwardsburg defeated Dowagiac 15-12 and 15-10 in the freshman match.
Jill Wiesemes had four assists, one aces, one point and six kills for the Chieftains.
Katie Hewitt added four assists, two aces and three points, while Brittany Bruens had three assists, five aces, 11 points and eight kills.
Katie Duszynski finished with three assists, a point and a kill. Amber Clark had three aces and three points, while Melissa Johnson finished with two aces, two points and a kill.
Dowagiac will travel to Niles on Wednesday and to Bangor for a tournament on Saturday.
Big 16 volleyball
The Niles varsity volleyball team picked up a non-conference victory Monday night against Constantine.
The host Vikings improved to 13-12-9 overall with a 15-11, 16-14 decision over the Falcons.
Sarah Dreher led the Niles attack with seven kills and Rachael Every added five. Sandy Molnar had 17 assists and one ace.