HANCOCK, Mich. – The Mount Mary University volleyball team surged to an opening set victory, but the Lions of Finlandia University came roaring back to secure the 16-25, 25-16, 25-20, 25-16 win in the first match of the SISU Classic Thursday night at the Paavo Nurmi Center.

Mount Mary fell to 3-14 overall while Finlandia improved to 5-9 on the year.

MMU jumped out to early set one leads of 4-1 and 8-3, then putting the set away by winning 10 of the final 14 points. The Blue Angels recorded an efficient .326 attack percentage in the opening frame, with 19 total kills.

Finlandia flipped the script in the first intermission, holding MMU to negative hitting the rest of the match.

Junior Aislinn Strusz (Aurora, Ill./West Aurora) led the offense with 13 kills—her fourth double-digit kill tally this season and first not coming in a five-set match. Freshman Morgan Vander Kooy (Fond du Lac, Wis./St. Mary's Springs) added eight kills on a team-high .278 individual hitting. Freshman Emma White (Scottsdale, Ariz./Saguaro) doled out 33 assists.

Defensively, freshman Ahlyna Cason (Smithton, Mo./Smithton R-VI) led MMU with 18 digs, while junior Jacklyn Mozdzen (Wautoma, Wis./Wautoma) and sophomore Brianna Ecker (Fond du Lac, Wis./Stockbridge) added 15 and 11 respectively. Junior Emma Carufel (St. Francis, Wis./St. Francis) had four total blocks while Vander Kooy added three, including two solo stuffs.

Mount Mary will return to action Friday afternoon for two more matches at the SISU Classic, battling Great Lakes Christian College at 1 p.m., before a rematch with the host Lions at 3 p.m. Both matches will be played at FinnU's Paavo Nurmi Center.