CEDAR RAPIDS — The William Penn women’s volleyball team traveled northeast Tuesday to take on Mount Mercy, but came up short in a 3-1 Heart of America Athletic Conference loss.

WPU (13-7, 3-2 Heart), which fell by scores of 26-24, 25-27, 18-25, 12-25, was outhit .154-.078 against Mount Mercy (8-3, 3-1 Heart).

After splitting the first 28 points of set one, the visiting Statesmen capitalized on two Mount Mercy errors to pull out a 26-24 set victory.

From there, the visitors had no answers as Mount Mercy interrupted the rhythm with a set two win in extra points. In sets three and four, WPU managed just 30 combined points, allowing the Mustangs to secure their third conference win.

Hailee Pesek (So., New Hampton, Iowa, Nursing) paced the Statesmen offense with 12 kills, followed by Maju Vieira (Jr., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Business Management) with nine, and Khiani Jackson (Sr., St. Joseph, Mo., Psychology) with eight.

Defensively, three Statesmen reached double figures in digs, led by Kaya Caprini (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn., Psychology and Human Services) with a standout 34. Abigail Mitchell (Jr., Oxford, Ala., Nursing) added 12, while Mia Brady (Sr., Pontiac, Ill., Exercise Science) chipped in 10 digs to go along with a team-best 24 assists.