KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Truman State University volleyball team and No. 11 Rockhurst both entered Friday night's meeting having won eight matches in a row. The Hawks extended their streak to nine after dispatching the Bulldogs with set scores of 25-23, 25-21 and 25-21.

With the loss, Truman is now 15-4 overall and 7-3 in the ranks of the GLVC while Rockhurst improved to 18-2 on the season including 9-1 in league play. The all-time series between these two teams is now tied, 9-9, but the Hawks have taken the last eight meetings and the Bulldogs' head coach, Ben Briney, is 2-8 against them during his tenure.

Ellie Kaat made her return from an injury she sustained a week ago against Missouri-St. Louis and led the team in kills with 11. Holly Hildebrand and Jocelynn Livingston, each with eight kills, both hit the ball well with hitting percentages of .583 and .353, respectively. Savvy Hughes notched 36 assists, Elle Renault had the team's lone service ace, Livingston was on top of blocks with three, and Hughes also paced the squad in digs with 15. Hughes is the first person not named Lauren Wacker (14 times) or Sam Yancy (four times) to lead the team in digs this fall.

Each of the three sets were pretty even as far as competitiveness, but the first saw more ties than the others with four. Truman scored the first two points to take the lead and at one point, led by as many as four, 9-5. Then came the first tie at 12-12, which was in the midst of a 9-2 run by Rockhurst to give it a five-point advantage, 19-14. However, the Bulldogs rattled off five-straight points to tie it for a third time, 19-19, before the final deadlock of 20-20. After the Hawks scored back-to-back points to make it 22-20, the Purple and White cut the margin to one on two occasions, but couldn't come back.

In the second set, Truman's two leads came early on at 2-1 and 3-2. Despite that, once it was 3-2, Rockhurst scored 13 of the next 17 points to take a commanding eight-point advantage, 15-7. After that, the visitors made a late charge to pull within three, 24-21, but the home team scored the final point to take a 2-0 match lead.

Truman controlled the momentum early on in the third period with the first two points before a lead of four, 10-6. Rockhurst fought back, though, to tie it for the first time at 11-11. The Bulldogs hung tough and didn't surrender their lead until a 7-0 Hawks' spurt them up by five, 21-16. From there on out, the closest the away team could get was two, 22-20, but the hosts held on for the sweep.

Next up, Truman is at William Jewell on Saturday with first serve set for 4 p.m. The Bulldogs hosted the Cardinals for their home opener back on Sept. 11 and cruised to a 3-0 victory inside Pershing Arena.

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