Riley, Earle, Drushal Lead Scots at Marcia French Tourney

Wanting to get back to the .500 mark on the season, The College of Wooster volleyball ran into some stiff competition during the Marcia French Memorial Tournament. During the two-day, seven-school event, the Fighting Scots notched a 1-3 record held inside Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium on the campus of Baldwin-Wallace College.

In Wooster's opening match on Friday, the Scots needed four sets to get past Trine University by scores of 25-21, 18-25, 25-22, 25-17. In Friday's nightcap, Wooster won the two of the opening three sets, but Alma College rallied by winning the final two sets and evened the Scots record on the day at 1-1 with scores of 25-20, 17-25, 25-21, 23-25, 8-15.

In the first match of Saturday morning's action, Wooster took the first two sets with ease over host Baldwin-Wallace by counts of 25-20 and 25-14. However, the Yellow Jackets responded winning set three 25-15, set four 25-22, and set five 15-12 for the 3-2 win over the Scots. During the final match of the tournament, Wooster ran into a Westminster College team that was clicking on all cylinders, falling 25-21, 25-18, 25-18.

Individually over the four matches, junior KateLynn Riley paced the Scots' offense with 67 kills and 10 errors on 136 attempts for a stellar .419 hitting percentage, including a season-high 22 kills against Baldwin-Wallace. Senior Megan Earle also had a big weekend in every way, smacking down 49 kills, while freshman setter Lizzi Beal handed out 151 assists, including a season-high 50 against Baldwin-Wallace. Defensively, senior libero Ali Drushal continues to add to her College record which now stands at 2,520 with 117 digs over the four matches this weekend, while Earle picked up 72 digs. Also of note, Riley added to her all-around performance with three block solos and five block assists.

Case Western Reserve University, Westminster, Baldwin-Wallace and Alma each posted 3-1 records over the two-day event, with Case Western being named tournament team champions via a tiebreaker. Wooster and Allegheny were each 1-3, while Trine finished 0-4.

Wooster will open the 2008 portion of its home schedule this Friday when it hosts a tri-match with Otterbein College (3-5) and Ursuline College (4-5). The Scots battle the Cardinals at 4 p.m. and will square off with the Arrows at 8 p.m. Otterbein and Ursuline will take on each other at 6 p.m.