GRANTHAM, Pa. - The Messiah women's volleyball team fell to Gettysburg College tonight 3-0 (23-25, 16-25, 20-25) in a nonconference match. Although Messiah battled to keep up with a strong Gettysburg squad, in the end the Bullets proved to be too much for the Falcons. Braedyn Gallagher led the team with 12 kills and Mary Underman tallied 10. On defense Amanda Dahlman recorded 19 digs while Jessica Zellers finished with 14. The loss drops Messiah to 13-14 overall and they will look to regroup and prepare for a match at Albright College next Tuesday Oct. 24.

Messiah knew coming into this match it wasn't going to be easy as Gettysburg is having a solid season all around, but the Falcons put forth some fight early on in the match.
 
The first set was a close one and Messiah had an early lead but Gettysburg chipped away and with the score 11-9 in favor of the Falcons, the Bullets tallied three-straight points to take control.  After points were traded back-and-forth, three kills in a row, one by Braedyn Gallagher and two from Mary Underman, gave Messiah a 19-16 advantage, and later things looked good with the Falcons leading 21-18. However, the Bullets came from behind and pulled ahead at one point 23-22. After the Falcons tied it at 23, the Bullets tallied the final two points to win set one 25-23.
 
Messiah struggled in the second set and errors allowed Gettysburg to really take control, leading by as much as ten at one point 17-7.  The Falcons made a little run towards the end but the damage was already done as the Bullets won set two 25-16.
 
Looking to put up a fight and keep the match going the Falcons came out and played a close third set. Trailing 4-1 early, they tallied five points in a row to take a 6-4 lead, but Gettysburg answered with four-straight points to go up 8-6. The set stayed pretty close for a couple exchanges but eventually the Bullets were able to build a comfortable advantage 19-11.
 
The Falcons didn't give in easily and trailing 20-12 late they put together a six-point scoring run to cut the lead 20-18. Braedyn Gallagher and Kate Preudhomme contributed kills in the run. That was as close as Messiah would get though as Gettysburg stayed out front and went on to win 25-20 and 3-0 in the match.