FAIRFIELD, CONN. (September 6, 2014)—The Sacred Heart women's volleyball team lost a heartbreaker to Hartford in the finale of the 2014 SHU Hampton Inn Shelton Invitational. After dropping the first two sets 25-17 and 25-23), the Pioneers bounced back taking the third and fourth sets before falling 16-14 in the fifth. Junior Tori Kemper (Banks, Ore.) had her best match of the tournament posting a double-double with 19 kills and 11 digs.

Sarah Krufka (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.), the Pioneers' representative on the All-Tournament Team, also tallied 19 kills and three service aces, while rookie Makayla Dole (Cypress, Calif.) posted her first double-double of the season with 16 kills and eleven digs.

Already down by two sets, Sacred Heart fell behind 2-0 in the third. Coming back to tie the score at six, a pair of aces from sophomore Ana Gonzalez (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico) put the Pioneers on top kicking off an 11-3 SHU run. The Hawks were never able to come back and Sacred Heart kept the match alive with the 25-21 win.

The Pioneers took the first point of the fourth set on a Hartford error and never looked back. Not allowing the Hawks to get ahead once, SHU dominated and with a kill from Dole securing the 25-19 win, they forced the decisive fifth set.

Hartford jumped out to a 4-1 capitalizing on several SHU errors forcing Head Coach Rob Machan to call a timeout. The teams traded points coming out of the break, but the Hawks still made it to the halfway switching point with an 8-4 lead. Back on their home side, a kill from Jene Lee (San Dimas, Calif.) ignited a 7-1 SHU run, which included another two aces for Gonzalez and three kills from Kemper, to take an 11-9 lead. Battling hard, Hartford came back to reclaim the lead, but late in the match Kemper sent down a kill to knot the score at 14 before a duo of Sacred Heart errors gave the Hawks the match.

Sacred Heart is back in action next weekend for three matches in the Hofstra Invitational. Friday, they will face Siena, and Saturday they will take on Fordham and Hofstra.