TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology endured a tightly contested matchup with Earlham College before narrowly falling 25-23, 22-25, 26-24, 25-22 in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference volleyball action on Wednesday at Hulbert Arena.
The Fightin' Engineers honored a pair of 4-year team members on Senior Night prior to the match. Marissa Gollnick has recorded 496 kills, 700 assists and 595 digs as a four-year member of the Fightin' Engineers. The mechanical engineering major was named to the all-HCAC Tournament Team in 2016 and 2017. Bailey MacInnis ranks No. 4 in Rose-Hulman history with 1,133 kills and has 447 digs and 174 blocks. The biomedical engineering major is a two-time first-team all-HCAC selection was a first-team CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2017.
The night also featured junior Katie Orbeta becoming the sixth Fightin' Engineer in program history to reach 2,000 career assists. Orbeta had a team-high 44 assists in the match.
Gollnick led the Rose-Hulman offense with 14 kills and had 12 digs. MacInnis added 12 kills, and Grace Beach reached double figures with 10 kills. Katryna Dahlberg recorded a team-high 25 digs, with Orbeta (15) and Gollnick (12) also in double figures.
Gollnick also had a team-high four block assists. Dahlberg, Gollnick and Mia Styczynski led the serving performance with two aces each.
Sarah Dickman led Earlham with 19 kills, and Lauren Jackson recorded a team-high 57 assists for the Quakers in the victory. Earlham clinched its first ever bid in the HCAC Tournament with the win.
Rose-Hulman dropped to 16-11 and 6-2 in league games, while Earlham improved to 18-11 and 5-3 in conference play. The Fightin' Engineers complete the regular season at Defiance College on Saturday. Rose-Hulman has clinched a bid to next week's HCAC Tournament, with the host site and bracket to be determined by Saturday matches.
