YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO – The Niagara volleyball team dropped a 3-1 (26-24, 22-25, 25-17, 25-13) decision against the Central Michigan Chippewas in both team’s first match at the Youngstown State Invitational on Friday.

"We competed hard against a very good team," head coach Susan Clements said. "Our focus for the next match is making adjustments quicker and improving our communication. I am happy with our level of competitiveness against a very talented team."

Niagara (2-3) played well to split the first two sets in the battle of teams picked first to win their respective conference; Central Michigan was picked first in the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The Purple Eagles matched CMU (1-3) point-for-point in the first set. Junior Hannah Hedrick tied the match at 24-24 before the Chippewas scored the final two points to win the set.

In the second set, NU rallied from a 12-9 deficit to win the set 25-22. Sophomore Kari Honomichl recorded six of her season-high 10 kills in the set; Hedrick added three kills and provided eight digs.

However, NU would struggle with the attacking prowess of CMU over the next two sets. The Chippewas had hitting percentages of .389 and .444 in the third and fourth set, respectively, en route to winning the third set 25-17 and the fourth set 25-13 to win the match.

Hedrick had her third-straight match with a double-double (10 kills and 16 digs) and libero Sam Morgan had 21 digs to continue her NCAA-best double-digit dig streak to 67 matches.

Niagara will play its final two matches in the invitational versus Youngstown State at 11 a.m. and Howard at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.