The Marshall women’s volleyball team (3-9) continued its 2017 season on Tuesday, where it was defeated by West Virginia University, 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-22), at the Cam Henderson Center.

“(I) Credit West Virginia for coming in here and showing our group how hard you are supposed to play the game,” head coach Mitch Jacobs said.  “We are young and learning, and we need to band together. I look forward to getting in the gym tomorrow and working with these young women to get through this and learn to play to our potential.”

The first set was a back and forth battle between both schools. Marshall’s Jac’cara Walker aced the Mountaineers to keep the score even at 7-7. West Virginia University eventually flexed their muscles and took an 18-13 set lead.

The Mountaineers went on to take four of the last five points in the set. The set finished after two errors by Marshall helped West Virginia to a 25-19 first set victory.

Marshall started the second set on a 6-2 run spearheaded by Walker who aced twice and had two kills. The Herd held a 10-7 lead in the second set, until a four-point streak by the Mountaineers put them in the driver’s seat with an 11-10 lead over Marshall. Mountaineer Erin Slinde aced two straight serves to take the lead back for West Virginia.

Marshall recaptured the lead at 13-12 after a kill by Madison Hill. The lead was short-lived and West Virginia would take eight of the next 10 points to secure a comfortable 20-15 lead. The Mountaineers won the second set again, after two errors by members of the Herd. WVU went on to close out the second set 25-19.

The start to the third set was reminiscent of the second. Marshall once again took command and scored five of the first seven points for a 5-2 lead. The Thundering Herd continued to pick up steam and points, leading 12-6 midway through the third set.

The Mountaineers began to surge late in the third set and they took 11 of 15 points to take their second lead of the set since they led 2-0 early on. Back-to-back kills by Lauren Mattmuller and Walker gave the Herd the lead back and sprung a tremendous run from Marshall.

The Herd took four of the next five points to take a 21-19 lead late in the third set. However, the match would be extended to a fourth set. West Virginia scored six of the game’s final seven points for a 25-22, third set victory to complete the set. Once again Marshall finished the third set with three errors.

Walker finished the game with 13 kills and 40 attacks, the most by any player on the court for both stat categories. Madison Hill’s 10 kills were good enough to be second on the team and third on the court. Madelyn Cole ended her night with 28 assists and four blocks.

The Thundering Herd will continue its 2017 campaign this Friday in Knoxville, Tennessee where they will take on the Volunteers for its first match in the Rocky Top Classic. Game time is set for 7 p.m.

Kyle Curley can be contacted at [email protected].