Philadelphia, PA - In their first match since the La Salle Invitational this past weekend, the La Salle Explorer volleyball team was looking to get back on the winning track when they hosted the Long Island Blackbirds on Tuesday night at the Tom Gola Arena. The Blackbirds were coming off a three game losing streak and hungry for their first win; their hunger won out as Blackbirds handed the Explorers their second loss of the season to fall to 3-2.

In game one, after being tied at 4-4, the Blackbirds took a three point lead at 7-4 and extended that lead to six twice during the game. The Explorers tied the game at 16-16 and took the lead at 18-17, before Long Island knotted the score at 18-18. After three more lead changes and several ties, the teams battled to the end, with the Blackbirds eventually taking a 35-33 win.

Game two again saw an early tie at 6-6, but the Explorers then fell behind by as much as three points before another tie at 20-20. That was as close as La Salle would bet, with Long Island eventually taking their biggest lead of the game at 27-23.

After being up 2-0, the Blackbirds fell behind 4-1 in what turned out to be the final game of the night. Long Island came back and evened the score at 7-7 and claimed the lead at 11-10. The Blackbirds extended their lead to 16-12 and then again at 19-15, but the Explorers were not giving up as they came back to tie the score yet agin at 22-22. Long Island was called out of rotation late in game three to give the Explorers a 28-27 lead but it wasn't enough as the Blackbirds took game three 30-28.

The upperclassmen led the way for the Explorers, with senior Robyn Wright (Salem, OH/Salem) and junior Lauren Woods (Akron, OH/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy) dropping 10 kills each on the Blackbirds. Woods committed just one error in 17 attempts, while Wright had just two in 19 attempts. Freshman setter Caitlin Conner (Willow Springs, IL/Lyons Township) assisted on 31 La Salle kills in the effort.

On defense, Woods also knocked down two solo and two assisted blocks, while Wright added one solo and a match-best six assisted blocks.

Long Island's Christina Pintilie (Cluj Napoca, Romania/University Babei Balai) topped all players with 29 kills and a .328 hitting percentage.

The Blackbirds put three players in double-digit digs with Lori Kay Ulrich (West Alexandria, OH/Twin Valley South) leading the way with 13, Ivana Vsiljevic (Brcko, Bosnia/Brcko City) with 12 and Dana Demayo (Ra'anana, Israel/Ostrovski) posting 11.

The Explorers will hit the road for the next when they travel to Toledo, Seton Hall and Colgate for tournaments. First up will be the Toledo Tournament on Friday, October 5th and Saturday, October 6th.