Tulsa, Okla.- The Western Illinois volleyball team (5-11, 0-2) fell the Oral Roberts (5-10, 2-0) on the road. Western fell in the first two sets before winning the third set and eventually falling in the fourth set, 25-23, 25-22, 25-19, 25-10.
 
"Our team did a good job battling through adversity today. I was proud of the way they fought and we were able to see some good things," said head coach Kelly Richardson. "We need to continue cleaning up our unforced errors so that we can keep the momentum on our side."
 
The Golden Eagles were able to take the first two sets from the Leathernecks In set one, Western came out strong and took an early lead by the way of Emilee Dechant, Melanie Patenaude and Emma Norris kills. Western forced an Oral Roberts timeout up 12-6, but the Golden Eagles were able to rally to eventually tie the score at 21. Oral Robert's CeCe Madison was able to log a kill to win the set.
 
The Purple and Gold were able to jump out to another lead early in the second set, 4-1, but Oral Roberts scored five straight points due to four errors committed by Western. Down 18-11, the Leathernecks scored six straight points to pull within one point to make the score 17-18. Keeping within three points for the rest of the set, WIU could not quite find traction as Oral Roberts won 25-22.
 
For the third set in a row, Western jumped out to a quick lead in the third set. Mackenzie Steckler logged two kills and Norris added another as Western started on top, 3-1. The Leathernecks were able to halt the Golden Eagles' run in the middle of the set after Oral Roberts scored four in a row. Up 18-12, Dechant recorded two kills while Aleezah Washington added another to put Oral Roberts away, 25-19.
 
Western was not able to capture the momentum gained in the third set and fell 25-10 in the fourth set.
 
Norris led the Leathernecks with 15 kills while Jaime Johnson led the way with 20 assists. Defensively, Shalyn Greenhaw led Western with 21 digs.
 
Western returns to Western Hall on Sept. 29 for its first Summit League home match against Omaha.