By Brittany Roth

After spending their first Friday on campus since the beginning of the year, the Beavers were excited to get back on the road Saturday to travel to Mount Union to face Marietta College along with the #8 ranked host school.

The first match was a long and intense battle against a Marietta squad that took down the Beavers on the opening weekend at the Sommer Center Spiketacular. In the first set Bluffton welcomed two injured players back into the lineup.

Unfortunately, they were defeated (25-19). The second set Bluffton returned the favor and downed Marietta, 25-18. Set three was close, but Marietta came out on top, 26-24. The fourth set went to Bluffton, 25-20, before the Beavers secured the clincher with a 15-13 victory.

Taking control of the net were sophomores Jenny Brown (St. Marys/Memorial) and Kendra Parmenter (Grove City). Brown had 16 kills, a solo block and three block assists for the Beavers while Parmenter added 15 kills and four assists.

Sophomores Brooke Ruffer (Stryker) and Sara Roth (Findlay/Van Buren) commanded the offense with 27 and 25 assists, respectively.

Defensively, senior Hailey Phillips (Malinta/Patrick Henry) led the pack with 15 digs. Ruffer chipped in with 15 digs in the victory. Freshman Marissa Krier (Massillon/Central Christian) added three aces for the Beavers as well.

After a short break, Bluffton then went on to face the host team which is currently ranked #8 in the nation. The Beavers came out of the gates well in each set and were able to hang with Mount Union for the first part of the match before the Raiders took over. Bluffton lost in three sets, 25-12, 25-16 and 25-12.

Ruffer led the Beavers in kills with six and Parmenter was not far behind with five. Ruffer also had eight assists and eight digs to lead the offense and defense as well. Roth tallied seven assists and Phillips added six digs.

The Beavers will travel to Heidelberg University on Tuesday, Oct. 1, to face the Student Princes at 7:30 p.m.