Blue Raiders fall to Albany

MIAMI - Middle Tennessee fell to Albany 3-2 (25-19, 25-19, 19-25, 21-25, 5-15) to begin the inaugural Miami/Florida International tournament on Friday.

Seniors Ashley Mead and Janay Yancey each recorded career-highs in the match. Mead led the team in kills with 24 while Yancey had nine block assists.

Mead also posted a hitting percentage of .388 which was the highest on the team and had just five errors in 49 attempts.

Junior Izabela Kozon notched 12 kills, the only other Blue Raider in double-digits. Sophomore Stacy Oladinni added five block assists and a solo block on defense while Mead had four block assists.

Service errors hurt Middle Tennessee in the end as it had 14 compared to Albany's seven. The Blue Raiders had one more kill than Albany with 56 and seven more total blocks with 13.

The Blue Raiders did not capitalize on opportunities and were out of system at the end of the match with just 34 digs while Albany had 42.

As a team, Middle Tennessee posted a hitting percentage of .226 while Albany hit .270 in the match.

Middle Tennessee will be back in action later this afternoon when it faces Miami in its second match of the tournament.

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