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NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – The Niagara Purple Eagles had their season-best six-match winning streak come to an end in a dramatic 3-2 (25-22, 17-25, 25-15, 14-25, 19-17) defeat in their home season finale on Sunday.

NU (15-11, 12-4 MAAC) staged a comeback from a 2-1 set deficit and had a couple of match points in the final set before dropping a heartbreaker in five sets. The setback snaps NU’s six-match winning streak which was the longest in the conference.

"We played hard today and wanted to honor our seniors with a win in their last home match, (but) the ball didn't bounce our way," head coach Dottie Porch said. "It wasn't for lack of effort or fight. We fought hard in the entire match."

Niagara honored three Purple Eagles on their senior day – Kari Honomichl,  Michelle James and Amanda Wilken - who are the winningest class in program history. All three Purple Eagles were influential in the match and recorded either career or season-highs in the loss.

Honomichl, the conference leader in kills per set, tied a Niagara season-high with 21 kills and set a career-high with 27 digs for her team-leading 15th double-double of the season. James set a season-high in assists with 59 and had a career-best 29 digs to lead the match. Wilken notched a career-high 14 kills, which were the most since she had a career-high 15 kills at Canisius on Nov. 13, 2010.

NU relied on the senior triplet throughout the match. The Purple Eagles dropped the first 25-22, but surged back to tie the set at 1-1.  Freshman Logan Rae closed out the set with consecutive aces and finished with a career-high five aces in the match. NU held Manhattan (14-15, 9-8 MAAC) to a match-low .056 hitting percentage in the set.

The Jaspers seized momentum in the third set with their match-high .298 hitting percentage. Manhattan built an eight-point lead en route to claiming the set, 25-15. With their backs against the wall, NU charged out of the gates in the fourth set and soared to a 20-9 lead before winning the set 25-14. NU had a match-high .405 hitting percentage in the set.

The fifth set went back-and-forth. Manhattan took an early 6-3 lead, but NU battled back to tie the score at 7-7. Manhattan built another three-point lead and eventually led 13-11 when NU scored three straight points to set up match point. Manhattan would tied the score on the next, but Amanda Sedore followed with one of her career-high 15 kills to put NU back in front, 15-14, and to serve for the match. However, once again the Jaspers fought off elimination and then served for the match on two different occasions but suffered attacking errors.

With the score knotted at 17-17, a kill by Mariana Furquim gave Manhattan the lead and Sydney Volovski followed with a kill on the en suing play to win the match for the visitors.

The loss bumps Niagara out of a first place tie with Fairfield, but will play the Stags next weekend on Saturday in Fairfield. NU final regular-season match will be at Iona on Sunday at 2 p.m.