St. Bonifacius, Minn. – The Crown volleyball team was searching for their first UMAC win of the season on Saturday, hosting the LumberJills of Northland College. The hosts battled, but came up just short, falling in straight sets by scores of 28-26, 25-11, and 25-21.

The opening set was back and forth, with huge momentum swings in either direction. After the Storm opened up a 10-9 lead, the Jills rattled off seven straight points to take a commanding 16-10 lead. Crown chipped away at that lead, but Northland was on the doorstep at 23-19 and serving with just two points needed to win the opening set.

It would be Crown's turn, however, to go on a run as two Aryanna Puetz kills, two Northland attacking errors, and a Talana Rudzitis ace pushed Crown to set point at 24-23.

Needing to win by two, the Jills scored the next two points, forcing a set point of their own, before Crown rebounded with kills from Jocelynn Shockley and Gracie Zieroth to put the score at 26-25 in favor of the home team.

Unfortunately, Crown couldn't find that last point and Northland scored the final three points to take set one 28-26.

Set two saw the visitors jump out to an 8-2 lead. Crown would only be able to close the gap to five points at 9-4 before Northland ran away with set two 25-11.

The third set saw Crown once again put up a good fight, opening up a 7-4 lead early on. Northland would rally to take the lead, but a 5-0 run that included two Chloe Burr aces tied things up at 14 apiece.

Nothland quickly took the lead back, however, and Crown couldn't find a way back, eventually falling 25-21 in the third and final set.

The Storm was led by Shockley's five kills as the team recorded 22 total on the night. Rudzitis registered 17 assists and Sage Johnston led the way with 15 digs as Zieroth recorded 14.

The Storm are next in action on Tuesday as they head north to Moorhead, Minnesota to take on the Cobbers of Concordia College.