SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - Junior Brooke Winterling (Glenelg, Md./Glenelg) led all players with 12 kills but Frostburg State was eliminated from the 2008 NCAA Volleyball Tournament with a 3-0 loss to top seed and No. 4 ranked Washington-St. Louis in the Great Lakes Regional, Thursday afternoon.

Box Score

FSU, making its seventh trip to the NCAA tournament and second in a row, lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight year after the Bobcats were defeated by Wittenberg in 2007.

The Frostburg State offense struggled early on in the match but rebounded in the final two games. FSU dropped the opener 25-9 but settled down for 25-13 and 25-16 losses over the final two games.

Winterling totaled nine of 12 kills in the final two games and the Bobcat offense improved over the final two sets. Frostburg State finished with 20 kills, 19 assists and 25 digs.

Sophomores Jamie Thomas (Laurel, Md./Reservoir) and Sarah Stephens (Oakland, Md./Southern Garrett) each had three kills and junior Lacie Johnson (Hagerstown, Md./Williamsport) led the team with 19 assist in her first start of the season. Thomas had eight digs and sophomore Rachel Burke (Laurel, Md./Reservoir) had seven.

After the Bears took a 5-0 lead in the first set, the Bobcats settled down and ran off four in a row to cut into the deficit (5-4). Washington then used a 19-3 run to open a 24-7 lead late in the match. Junior Chelsea Wassell (Westernport, Md./Southern Garrett) and Stephens recorded back-to-back kills as FSU narrowed the count to 24-9 before the Bears captured the final point and a 25-9 game-one victory.

Frostburg State had a better start to game two as Winterling and Stephens smashed a pair of early kills as the Bobcats trailed by just one at 3-2. Winterling later recorded two more kills to help Frostburg State trail 7-4, but the Bears rallied off 10 out of the next 11 points for a 17-5 cushion. Late in the match, FSU registered three-straight points and Washington handed the Bobcats two more points on errors as FSU trailed 23-13. However, the Bears used a kill from Alli Alberts and a block to pick up the final two points and a 25-13 win.

The Bobcats turned in their best effort in the third and final set. Winterling had her best output of the match with five kills and a block to help FSU to early leads of 5-4 and 7-5. The Bears took control of game three in the middle part of the set as they turned a slim 13-9 lead into a 10-point advantage (20-10) with a handful of kills from Nikki Morrison and Erin Kasson. Frostburg State again made a run late in the match with four-straight points, two Winterling kills, to trail 24-16. In the end, Erin Albers carried the Bears into the second round with the match’s final kill for a 25-16 game three win.