Tonight the Beavers were the closest to a win as they were all season. St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival Westminster College entered the Beaver Dome tonight. Westminster came into tonight’s contest with a record of 12-5, and currently sits third in the SLIAC.

In the opening set, Blackburn managed to keep pace with the Blue Jays despite not being able to play with any consistency. Yet Westminster never let the Beavers be more than a threat and won the opener 25-17.

Blackburn still struggled to establish a rhythm in the second set, and found themselves behind quick. The deficit was only 14-9 at one point, but Westminster decided to put the set away. On explosive rally later, powered by eleven unanswered points, the Blue Jays had a 2-0 lead on the night after winning 25-9.

The Beavers refused to go down and came out in the third set hot. The team jumped to an early 5-2 lead and tried to hold on from there. Westminster would rally back to retake the lead 12-9. It looked as if Westminster would have the sweep, but the Beavers would have no part of it. Blackburn fired of a rally to the tune of six straight service points to tie the match up at 20. It became a back and forth affair, until Blackburn resurged again to take set three 25-22.

The energy carried over to set four, despite Blackburn falling behind early 6-1. After that point the Beavers kept the Blue Jays in check and began to chip away at the lead. However the Beavers were unable to muster another comeback and eventually lost the set and the match 25-22

Patrece McLain lead the Beavers in kills tonight with six. Marlee Lindstrom had 12 digs. With the loss, the Beavers are still winless on the year and will host the St. Louis College of Pharmacy this Thursday at 7:00 pm.