Final Stats HOUSTON, Texas – The Nicholls State University women's volleyball team put together one of its most impressive performances this season on Saturday afternoon getting three players who finished with double-digit kills, two with over 25 assists and four with double-digit digs, but the Colonels were unable to pull off the upset and topple the Houston Baptist Huskies and fell in five sets, 21-25, 25-19, 15-25, 25-19, 13-15 in Sharp Gym.

In arguably its best team performance in the last few weeks, the Colonels (5-20, 2-13 SLC) were two points away from match point after rallying to tie the fifth set at 13 after trailing 13-11. It was the seventh tie of the fifth set alone and the 24th of the match that Nicholls forced, but after a service ace by Ainsley Marroccoli, her first of the afternoon, the Huskies (12-14, 7-7) closed out the match earning the next two points to win.

Offensively, the Colonels outpaced one of the top hitting and kill producing teams in the league on Saturday afternoon, led none other by the freshmen trio of Kayla Burling, Kayla Mashburn and Mikayla Miller.

Burling had the best hitting day of her young career on Saturday as she led all players with 21 kills on a staggering .367 attack percentage. When coupled with her 14 digs on the day, she produced her team-leading eighth double-double of the season to account for 22 points.

The only player who produced more points on the day was her front row mate in Mashburn who finished the day with 20 kills on a mind-boggling 66 swings for a .182 hitting percentage. Mashburn, who was making her way back into the lineup after fighting off an illness, returned to form not only on her attacks but her serves as she lit up the Husky defense with five service aces for 25 points.

In the middle, Miller has been a force defensively, but on this day she found her stride offensively as she had her first match with double-digit kills as she earned 11 with a hitting average of .250. Miller also had an ace and three digs, but proved to be stout on the net as she led the squad with six total blocks (1 BS, 5 BA) and helped the Colonels out-block HBU 9.5-9.0.

Marroccoli produced her third double-double of the year, leading the team with 27 assists and digging up 11 balls, followed by Alyse Barlcay who had 23 assists. Kalynn Egea led the quartet of Colonels who had double-digit digs, coming one shy of tying for the match high with her 18. After Burling, senior Carley McInnis had 12 followed by Marroccoli.

HBU's Caiti Wenger led the Huskies with 20 kills and hit .447 with three service aces, followed by Madeline Gaffney's 14. Kayla Armer led all players with 50 assists, while Haley Hoffman had a game-high 19 digs.

Both sides showed off its offensive firepower early, as in the first set the Colonels had 15 kills and a .400 hitting percentage while the Huskies hit .556 with 16. Nicholls turned a 17-14 deficit into a tie game after getting two kills from Burling and HBU ball-handling error. However, the offense stalled from there and allowed Houston Baptist to score four of the next five to go up 22-18 and force a Nicholls timeout. After getting the point out of the timeout, Nicholls fought back to make it 24-21, but couldn't continue the set as a kill by Bailey Keith ended the first 25-21.

Nicholls changed the narrative in the second set as the Huskies fell apart offensively while the Colonels were able to keep up its pace from the first set, as Nicholls forced a HBU timeout leading 14-10. The lead got bigger as the Colonels captured four of the next six to go up 18-12 to force another Husky timeout. From that point the lead was never in doubt as the Colonels squared the match at 1 a piece with a 25-19 set win.

Obviously frustrated with their lack of offensive production in the previous set, HBU came out determined in the third and although they did not hit terribly well in the set they converted 63 percent of their side out chances and led by as many as 11 points during the third to cruise to 25-15 fourth set win as they held Nicholls to just seven kills.

The fourth set was a precursor to what was going to happen for the rest of the match, as the two sides battled through four ties and two lead changes. Trailing 10-9, Nicholls went on a 4-0 run to force a HBU timeout leading 13-10. The Colonels eventually went up 16-11, and looked to be cruising until HBU fought back to tie it up at 19 to force a Nicholls timeout. Finally a timeout worked in Nicholls' favor as they came out and closed out the match in order to go to the sudden-death fifth set tied at two.

Neither team gave an inch in the first 12 points, leading to a 6-6 draw. Eventually HBU began to break away forcing a Nicholls timeout leading 11-8. Four points later the Colonels found themselves within one of the Huskies and put together a drive to make it 12-11 with HBU calling a timeout to stop the charge. It led to the final exchange between the two teams with Houston Baptist having just enough to push through and hold off Nicholls for the win.

The Colonels will be back in action next week, taking on the Lamar Cardinals in Beaumont on Thursday.