URBANA, Ohio – On the road, Notre Dame College had 38 kills and eight blocks against Urbana University, but fell short in their comeback attempt with a 3-1 defeat, on Tuesday night.

Urbana (12-6, 1-2 MEC) played very well in the first set, committing just one attack error and holding a hit percentage of .480. The Falcons (6-9, 0-2 MEC) found themselves down by just four points, 13-9, before the Blue Knights reeled off 12 of the final 15 points, winning the set, 25-12.

In the second set, the Falcons immediately took the lead and they took advantage of nine Urbana attack errors. An ace by junior Erin Daugherty gave NDC a 16-7 lead. The Falcons put together a 4-0 run to end the set, which included a kill and an ace by freshman Lizzie Willis. Notre Dame won 25-14 and the Falcons had a hit percentage of .348 while the Blue Knights finished with a much lower percentage of -.031.

The third and fourth sets were close, but Urbana won the final four points in the third set. Then, in the fourth set, Notre Dame had to battle back after falling behind 15-7. They closed the gap to four points, 23-19, with the help of a late 5-0 run, but could not get any closer. Urbana would eventually win both sets by a score of 25-20.

"Tonight was a night where we let them (Urbana) control the tempo of the match with mistakes on our side of the net," head coach Travis Hinkle, said. "The bright spot was some of our players not known for filling up the stat sheet, came in and gave a push when we really needed it, such as Lizzie (Willis) and Alyssa (Campbell). Lizzie provided the spark we needed in the second set, with aggressive hitting and serving."

Daugherty led the Falcons with nine kills and 11 points. Willis added eight kills, eight digs and two aces. Junior Paige Staudacher had 31 assists tonight, and has had 12 games of 30, or more, assists, this season. Junior Alexandra Kaeberlein had 21 digs, junior Mary Kate McHugh added 12 digs and junior Riley Coleman totaled 11 digs. Sophomore Roberta Jokubauskaite had five blocks while NDC totaled eight blocks, as a team.

Madison Davis gave the Blue Knights 18 kills and two aces, while Hannah Delor had four aces and 18 digs. Delor came into the contest ranked in the top-15 in the country in aces. Anna Davis led the team with 23 assists and Courtney Niesen added 16 digs. UU had nine aces.

"We have two more key MEC matches this week and we need to learn from this match to get ready for another road trip," Hinkle mentioned.

Notre Dame travels to Shepherdstown, W.Va. on September 28 to play Shepherd University. The match begins at 7 p.m.