The Ellsworth Community College volleyball team pushed #11 DMACC into playing five sets. The Panthers came out strong but lost in a hard-fought battle on Wednesday, Oct. 22. The set scores were 18-25, 25-23, 25-23, 17-25 and 13-15.

Panther stat leaders included Cristina Negron with 12 kills, 22 set assists, 4 aces and 3 blocks; Keisha Machado with 15 kills and 15 digs; April Jones with 9 kills and 3 blocks; Madison Grabau with 18 digs; and Darayliz Santiago with 24 set assists.

"We played a hard-fought game last night. Our defense was scrappy and our intensity was much better than past weeks," commented ECC Head Volleyball Coach Melanie Suljic. "We definitely caught DMACC off-guard and were two points away from a huge upset on the road. We offensively only hit at a percentage of .149, so if we tweak a few things offensively, it will be difficult to beat us the next time we could potentially meet up in the post-season."

The Panthers will be back on the road this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 23 & 24, at the Iowa Central Tournament. They will finish their regular season at home on Oct. 29 with a 7 pm game against NIACC.