Volleyball Falls to Ohio Wesleyan in Five Sets

DELAWARE, OH -- Texas Lutheran dropped the opening match of the 2024 Bishop Invitational to the tournament host, Ohio Wesleyan, in five sets on Thursday at Branch Rickey Arena.

The Bulldogs (4-3) will turn their attention to Heidelberg and #RV Wisconsin-Platteville for day two of the Bishop Invitational on Friday with the first match against Heidelberg scheduled to start at 3 PM CST/4 PM EST. All streaming and live stats links will be available on tlubulldogs.com.

Brylie Nedd (Sealy/Sealy), Shavonne Respondek (San Antonio/Madison), and Julia Chew (Cypress/Cy-Fair) all recorded double-doubles in the match. Nedd finished with a team and career-high 20 kills and added a career-high 18 digs. Respondek had a team-high 28 assists and 25 digs, while Chew had 17 digs and 16 assists.

Regan Schmidt (Seguin/Seguin) posted a career-high 11 kills, while hitting a team-high .345 in the match.

Faith Coldewey (Floresville/Floresville) finished with a team-high 31 digs and added eight assists and two aces.

Despite Texas Lutheran holding a 22-18 lead late into the first set, the Bishops would battle back to steal the opening set, 25-22.

Ohio Wesleyan grabbed a 2-0 lead with a 25-21 win in the second set. Texas Lutheran trailed by as many as six points, but was able to cut the lead to 24-21 but was not able to complete the comeback.

The Bulldogs came alive in the third set, avoiding the sweep with a 25-16 set win.

TLU was able to send the match to the fifth set courtesy of a dominant 25-15 fourth set win. A mid-set 8-0 run stretched the lead from 11-10 to 19-10 - as the Bulldogs worked to fight for a match win in the fifth set.

Ohio Wesleyan jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the fifth set before Texas Lutheran used a 4-1 run to cut the lead to 6-5. The Bishops would come right back to put the match away with a 15-8 win.