EAST LANSING, MI – The Wright State volleyball team dropped its first of two matches on Saturday at the 2021 Auto-Owners Spartan Invitational, falling in three sets to Western Michigan in the morning contest.
 
The Raiders (1-1) close the weekend later Saturday night with a matchup against tournament host Michigan State. Match time is set for 7 p.m. and can be followed on live stats or Big 10 Network+.
 
Against Western Michigan, Wright State never was able to find its footing, playing catchup for most of the three sets. The Raiders finished the morning hitting just .139 as a team, while Western Michigan finished at a .268 clip. Megan Alders led the Raider attack with eight kills, while Celia Powers had six kills and both Nyssa Baker and Callie Martin recorded five kills. Martin and Lainey Stephenson each had a pair of service aces, while Stephenson passed out 23 of Wright State's 32 assists. Jenna Story (16) and Martin (11) both finished with double-digit dig totals.
 
SET 1
The Raiders jumped ahead early with four of the first five points behind kills from Alders and Baker and an ace from Martin, but Western Michigan responded with six of the next seven points to take the lead. Down three, Wright State used a kill from Grace Hauck, another Martin ace and a WMU attacking error to knot the score at 15-all at the midway point, but Western Michigan answered with another 6-1 run to push the score to 22-16 on the way to closing out the set.
 
SET 2
A back-and-forth set throughout, Western Michigan jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead before a four-point run for the Raiders tied the score at 6-all behind a pair of kills from Alders. Western Michigan answered with a 7-1 run to gain control before Wright State responded with a 6-2 run of its own, led by Powers' three kills and ace, to lock the score at 16-all. The sides traded points for the rest of the set before Western Michigan tallied its final three points of the set on a trio of Raider service errors.
 
SET 3
Another tight set to start, the Raiders were always within arms' reach but could never tie or take the lead early before a 7-1 Western Michigan run put them in control. Wright State pulled to 18-12 on a 4-1 run, but WMU had another answer, this time a four-point swing to push the margin back to 10, on the way to closing the morning.