NEW ORLEANS, La. - Faulkner rebounded from yesterday's disappointing loss to Wayland Baptist with a victory over Mississippi Valley State 25-22, 25-20, 24-26, 25-18 here on the second day of the Xavier tournament. Faulkner then ran into a wall against host Xavier, however, losing it's first straight-sets match of the season 25-22, 25-23, 25-22.

The Lady Eagles struggled a bit in diversifying the offensive weaponry yesterday, but had little difficulty dispensing the ball to numerous targets here in the opening match this afternoon. Faulkner had three hitters with double-digit kills against MVSU.

Play wasn't entirely polished on the Faulkner end of things, however. The team, which normally prides itself on being a threat from behind the baseline, missed an incredible 12 serves in the match.

Deja vu then plagued the Lady Eagles in the final contest of the outing. Faulkner's block presented big problems for the Xavier attack, but the remedy came in off-tempo swinging and tips - something the Lady Eagles struggled mightily with in the ACU tournament last week.

In addition, the Nuggets did a good job of playing the odds. Xavier keyed prominent offensive threats while allowing damage from seemingly weaker sources. The strategy paid off and created enough of a point shift to generate three narrow wins.

"We're still too hot and cold," Bartels said. "We are lights out one minute and then mental cases the next. We have to develop consistency in our play. The highs are beautiful to witness and difficult for our opponents to deal with, but our lows are incredibly frustrating to watch. We're not getting dominated and virtually every set has been close, which is excellent. We still aren't making all the right connections a lot of the time though and we're giving away entirely too many points - especially in the serve. We're going address things this week and I hope we'll see more disciplined play in the next tournament."

Alysa Klassen was on point at the net for Faulkner tallying 23 kills, while hitting .400, and adding seven total blocks.

Sarah Dubberley added 20 kills to stat sheet and was second defensively with 29 digs on the day.

Krystalynn Leomiti also had 20 kills and contributed 10 digs and six total blocks for the Lady Eagles.

Katie Musser produced 30 assists and 12 digs and Jordan Jones had 27 assists and 21 digs.

Libero Cassie Bailie had 35 digs.

Faulkner moved to 4-3 overall and will open the home season with its annual Invitational tournament at Tine Davis Gymnasium next weekend. The Lady Eagles will compete in four matches over the two-day event beginning with Truett-McConnell at 1 p.m. on Friday.