EAST PEORIA, Ill. - Entering Thursday night's GLVC Tournament quarterfinal match against top-seeded Lewis, eighth-seeded Truman hadn't won a set over the 23rd-ranked team in the nation in their last two matchups. The Bulldogs ended that trend to begin the postseason, but the Flyers proved too strong and sent the Purple and White home early. Lewis made it a three-match season sweep over Truman with set scores of 20-25, 25-23, 25-20, and 26-24.

Truman's 30th 20-win season in program history comes to a close at 21-11 while Lewis improves to 25-6 and moves on to play fourth-seeded Rockhurst on Friday at 5:30 p.m. in the semifinals. Head coach, Ben Briney, is now 8-3 (.727 winning percentage) all time in the GLVC Tournament, but two of those three losses have come in the past two seasons. Also, Briney's record against higher seeds for the GLVC Tournament is now 2-2.

Thursday, four different Bulldogs sent home at least 10 kills for the first time since Oct. 20 vs. McKendree, which was six matches ago. Those four included Ellie Kaat (pictured/16), Holly Hildebrand (12), Jocelynn Livingston (10), and Morgan Smith (10). Hildebrand was on fire as she hit .385 in the process. In fact, the redshirt senior racked up at least 10 kills in four of the final five matches. In those four outings, Hildebrand totaled 44 kills to just 10 errors on 114 attempts for a hitting percentage of .298.

Fellow senior, Savvy Hughes, accumulated 43 assists to move into sole possession of fourth place in the program's record book for career assists with 3,473. The 5-7 setter also finishes in third for assists per set in a career with 9.65. Hughes was able to accomplish both of those incredible feats after playing just three seasons in the Purple and White.

Against Lewis, Truman's other leaders included Lauren Wacker (two service aces and 31 digs) and senior, Natalie Brimeyer (four blocks). More on Brimeyer, the North Liberty, Iowa native will walk away from the game with her name all over Truman's blocking record book. Brimeyer is third in blocks per set (1.16), seventh in block assists (342) and eighth in total blocks (388).

The program also says goodbye to defensive specialist, Claire Wandrey. In her final collegiate match, Wandrey finished with eight digs to give her 844 for her career.

The match was an absolute barn burner as it saw a combined 33 ties and 19 lead changes. In the first set, Lewis scored the first two points and pushed its lead to as many as three at 7-4 and 8-5. Once it was up 10-8, Truman responded with four-straight points to take its first and biggest lead of the match, thus far, at 12-10. Following two more deadlocks at 13-13 and 15-15, the Bulldogs scored six of the next seven points for their biggest advantage, 20-16. After that, the Flyers were never closer than three and the Purple and White went up 1-0 in the match.

The second frame was the tightest of the match with 13 of those 33 ties and nine of those 19 lead changes. Truman went ahead 5-2 before Lewis rattled off six-consecutive points to go up three, 8-5. From there, it was a back-and-forth affair, but the Bulldogs pulled ahead by one late, 23-22, before the Flyers scored the final three points to win the set and knot the match up at 1-1.

On to the third set, neither team led by  more than two until Lewis had a five-point advantage at 14-9 thanks to a 6-0 run. After that, Truman pulled within one on three occasions, but could never get it tied again. As for the fourth, the Bulldogs once again had a lead late, this time 22-18, but the Flyers scored eight of the next 10 points to win the period and the match in four.

Looking ahead to 2019, Truman will return 10 of its 14 players including the Second-Team All-GLVC honoree, Kaat, as well as the 2017 First-Team All-GLVC honoree, Wacker. Wacker is currently first for Truman in career digs per set (4.81) and sixth in career digs (1,706).

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