THE RUNDOWN
DBU drops a close game at home to conference opponent St. Mary's. Both teams came into this match with a lot of energy. There was plenty of excitement between the two teams during warmups and that energy carried over into the entire match. The first two sets were split between DBU and St. Mary's with scores of 25-19 and 27-29. Then, the Lady Patriots possibly had their best set of the season in the third, winning the set 25-9. But St. Mary's fought back barely winning the fourth set 27-25 and would go on to win the deciding fifth set 15-11. 

The first set of the match saw the Lady Patriots take advantage of the errors committed by St. Mary's and saw Alexa Lezak have some impressive kills on their way to a 25-19 set victory. STMU fought back and kept things closer in the second set. No team took a sustainable lead and both teams were not ready to let the set slip away. After going back and forth late in the set, St. Mary's finally did enough to win the set 29-27. 

The third set looked like it was from a different match entirely. DBU trailed 7-8 before scoring 11 straight points and 18 of the next 19 points to win 25-9. The fourth set stayed a little closer. The biggest lead for either team came when St. Mary's led 20-17. The score eventually was tied up at 25, but two kills by Tarine Grace allowed St. Mary's to force a fifth set. The final set saw DBU go down 3-7, but they came back and tied it up at 9-9. St. Mary's would then score six of the next eight points to win the deciding set 15-11.

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• St. Mary's came out for the fourth set playing with a high sense of urgency and ready to fight back after losing 25-9 in the third set.
• With set scores like 29-27 and 27-25 shows that this was definitely a game that could have gone either way.
• Channing Hankins and Tarine Grace for St. Mary's had the most kills between both teams and really helped lead their offense.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
3- The Lady Patriots finished with three players having at least 10 kills.
16- St. Mary's ended the match with 16 more digs than DBU.
11- DBU still found success defensively with their 11 blocks in the match. 

COACH KOKEL ON ST. MARY'S STYLE OF PLAY COMPARED TO DBU'S
"They just really wanted it where I feel like we wanted it, but we played more with a lack of confidence and fear where they were just like, 'we have nothing to lose and we're going all out for it' and that's the mentality we're trying to reach in our team. And it'll be nice when we get Kasey (Holand) back on the court. She's a dynamic player for us. We saw a lot of good things, but some of our point-earners weren't earning points tonight."

UP NEXT
The Lady Patriots stay in Dallas and will host conference opponent UA Fort Smith this Thursday, September 28th at 7:00 p.m. That game will mark the fourth game of the six straight home games for DBU.