The Eastern Mennonite volleyball women forced a decisive game five on the road Wednesday night, but came up just short, dropping a 3-2 match at McDaniel.

The Lady Royals grabbed game one, closing a 25-21 decision with a solo block from Kayla Smeltzer (Richmond, VA/Maggie L. Walker).  Game two saw the women lose a 16-8 lead, which snowballed into back-to-back 25-21 losses.

EMU took control of game four, as Sara Ritchie (Harrisonburg, VA/Turner Ashby) smacked three straight kills to cap an early 5-0 run.  The final score was 25-18.

McDaniel scored the first three in game five, but the Lady Royals fought back to tie the score at 9-9.  Things unraveled from there, however, as the home team scored the next six points to close a 15-9 match-ender.

Ritchie led the way with 21 kills on a .298 hitting percentage to go along with 16 digs.  Michelle Miller (Sarasota, FL/Sarasota Christian) had nine kills with Rachel Kennel (Parkesburg, PA/Lancaster Mennonite) adding eight.  Mattie Lehman (New Paris, IN/Bethany Christian) put up 32 assists along with four service aces.

Katie Miller (San Antonio, TX/Brandeis) again led in the back row with 32 digs.  Karla Martin (Stuarts Draft, VA/Grace Christian) had 16 digs.  Julyanna Anderson (Front Royal, VA/Skyline) had 13 digs, but was more notable for her whopping eight service aces.  EMU had 18 aces as a team.

Smeltzer finished with three block assists and one solo stuff to go with her seven kills.

Now 1-4, the women play one more road match this weekend, taking on Mary Baldwin at 5:00pm on Saturday.