The Shippensburg University volleyball team battled regional rival Shepherd on Friday night but came up short in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division opener, dropping a four-set match to the Rams at the Butcher Athletic Center. Set scores were 23-25, 18-25, 25-21 and 13-25.
 
Shippensburg (5-8, 0-1 PSAC East) got a strong effort from junior Oyinda Agbale, who slammed a team-high 14 kills and hit an efficient .300 from the floor over 30 attempts. Junior Rachel Verhoef had eight kills and four blocks, while freshman Emily Gardner contributed seven kills.
 
Freshman setter Lily Letchworth totaled 36 assists and had 17 digs. She also snuck in three kills. Redshirt-sophomore libero Alex Leitner led the Raiders with 19 digs and had three assists.
 
Shepherd (12-1, 1-0) was excellent at the net, totaling an impressive 18 blocks. The Rams also served seven aces and hit .186 as a team while holding Shippensburg to a season-low .060 hitting percentage.
 
The first set featured a Shippensburg rally, as the Raiders trailed 22-17 but got within 24-23 before the Rams crunched a kill for the first set point. In the second set, the score was within one point at 17-16 before a net violation call gave the momentum to the hosts. Shepherd's resulting 5-0 run was enough to propel the hosts to a 2-0 lead.
 
The third set featured a pair of big runs at the start, with Shippensburg taking a 6-0 lead before Shepherd responded with eight straight points. Trailing 9-7 in the third, the Raiders scored five of the next six points to take a 12-10 lead. With the score tied at 17-17, Shippensburg used a 6-1 run to build a lead that would last through the end of the set.
 
Shippensburg returns to action at 4 p.m. Saturday with a non-conference home match against IUP at Heiges Field House.