The Tiffin University volleyball team (2-7, 0-3 G-MAC) played their long-awaited home opener Friday night against Ashland and came up short in five sets (19-25, 22-25, 26-24, 25-19, 12-15).  

Trailing two sets to none, the Dragons got right back in the match. The Dragons had all the momentum early in the third set as a service ace by Lexi Barber put TU on top 6-2. Tiffin had to withstand multiple runs by the Eagles and three straight kills (two by Kaylee Freund and one by Jada Shade) gave TU a 20-19 lead. Ashland fought back to tie it at 24 and the Dragons were able to close it out with back-to-back kills by Katelyn Owens and Olivia Karhoff. 

In the fourth set, back-to-back attack errors by Shade gave the Eagles a 16-12 advantage and the Dragons went on a massive run, winning seven straight and 13 of 16 to force a fifth set. Nine of 13 points came via the kill.  

Parker Vackert started the fifth set with a kill, but it was the Eagles who won five of the first seven points to jump out to the early lead. Despite getting within one point five times, the Dragons could not tie or get the lead. The Dragons had their worst hitting percentage of the five sets in the fifth set, only notching a mark of .111. A kill by Shade saved one match point but the Eagles closed it out on the next point with a kill.  

It was a very competitive and entertaining match which featured 28 ties and 14 lead changes. Despite the loss, the Dragons recorded their best hitting percentage of the season with .258.  

Freund recorded a team high and career high 20 kills and Karhoff added 17. Shade had 15 kills, and Maggie Pavlansky recorded a career high 57 assists to go along with 4 kills and 13 digs. Morgan Morley led the way defensively with 21 digs. Joing the double digit kills department was Owens with 14. 

The Dragons finished the match with 75 kills as a team, the most since October 27, 2023.