KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Twice the Kutztown University women's volleyball team went up a set on Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Southeast Division foe East Stroudsburg on Tuesday night, only to fall in five sets (25-19, 22-25, 25-19, 17-25, 12-15) to the Warriors in back and forth action in Keystone Arena.
 
Kutztown (3-15, 0-7 PSAC) erased an early 3-0 fifth-set deficit to come back and take a 5-4 lead on successive kills from Taylor Brown (Dillsburg, Pa./Northern), Brittney Moyer (Orwigsburg, Pa./Blue Mountain (Lock Haven)) and Zandria Zielinski (York, Pa./York Catholic).  Following an East Stroudsburg (10-10, 2-5 PSAC) response, a Moyer kill and Warrior error deadlocked the set for a fifth time at 10-10. ESU would take the next two points though, and despite another Moyer kill to pull the Golden Bears within one, 12-11, ESU completed the comeback with three of the final four points.
 
Jessica Howe (Chambersburg, Pa./Chambersburg Area) finished with a career-high 19 kills on .341 hitting in the losing effort, one kill shy of Moyer's team-high 20.
 
Madison Brake (Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Bishop Hartley) was one dig shy of also setting a career-high, leading KU with a season-high 27 digs. Also with new season-highs in digs were Anna Conti (Grove City, Ohio/Grove City) and Tori Wakelee (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East), as the two recorded 20 and 14, respectively.
 
Completing the evening with a match-high 40 assists, Conti became the third Golden Bear in program history to surpass 3,000 for her career.
 
Moyer, who registered at least 20 kills for the second straight match, added 12 digs for her 13th double-double of the year, while Sophie Kerschner (Clinton, N.J./North Hunterdon) reached double-digits for the third time this season with 10 digs.
 
The five Golden Bears in double-figures were part of a Kutztown season-high 100 digs.
 
East Stroudsburg also had 100 digs and the two teams had an identical .189 hitting percentage. Also separated by just one in the final statistics in blocks and assists, where the Warriors held the slight advantage was in kills (64-56) and service aces (10-2).
 
Desiree Claxoton and Sarah Smith went to-to-toe with Moyer and Howe as the two tallied 24 and 22 kills, respectively.
 
Tina Predojevic had a match-high 31 digs.
 
KU swung a match-best .312 in the first set en route to the comfortable 25-19 scoring margin, but would go down 3-10 early in the second and would not be able to recover despite getting as close as two four separate times late.
 
Kutztown then reversed roles in the third set, jumping out to a 14-2 advantage to eventually take its second one-set lead.
 
Up 16-15 in the fourth, ESU would force the fifth set thanks in large part to scoring the next six points for a 22-15 lead.
 
The end of a five-match homestand, KU returns to the road for the first time in nearly three weeks when it travels to Pitt-Johnstown (13-5, 6-1) on Friday night, Oct. 14, for a 7 p.m. start. The Golden Bears then are at Lock Haven (2-13, 1-6) on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 1 p.m.