GRINNELL, Iowa - The Regents volleyball team began their play in the Grinnell College Tournament on Friday night taking on the host Pioneers. It turned out to be by far the most exciting match of the year for Regents. After taking the first set 25-17, the Regents and Pioneers battled hard in the second set with Rockford eventually coming out on top 25-22 to take a 2-0 lead. Grinnell would not go into the night quietly taking both the third and forth sets to level the match at 2 sets apiece and force a fifth and deciding set. The Regents jumped out to an early 4-1 lead before the Pioneers would battle back to take their first lead of the set at 9-8. The two teams would trade points back and forth until Grinnell had a chance to win the match. However, the resilient Regents fought hard to spoil a Grinnell match point and level the fifth set at 15-15. Rockford would reel off two straight points to win the fifth set 17-15 and the match 3-2. The win snaps Rockford's season long 5-game losing streak.

The Regents seemed to come together getting a complete team effort on Friday night to pick up the win. Freshman setter Emily Johnson (Santee, Calif./Santana) played her best match of the season tallying 43 assists for Rockford. In addition, Johnson had 9 service aces in the match, narrowly missing tying the school record of 10. Sophomore Laina Scheri (Cortland, Ill./DeKalb) just missed recording her first 20-20 match of the season. Scheri led the Regents with an impressive 19 kills and 21 digs, both of which were season highs. Senior Nicole Lawler (Pearl City, Ill./Pearl City) had her second straight 15 kill 19 assist match and third double-double of the season for the Regents. Lawler was also a force defensively at the net with a season-high 5 blocks including 2 solo blocks.

The volleyball team will play two more matches on Saturday at the Grinnell College Tournament. The Regents open up the day at 10:00 a.m. with a match against Central College and follow that up with a 2:00 p.m. match against Coe College.