Despite 22 kills by Cailin McCullion, the Misericordia University volleyball team dropped a hard-fought match to Cairn University, 3-2 (25-18, 14-25, 15-25, 25-23, 9-15), Monday in the Anderson Center.

Kellyn Swanson and Kat LaBrie both added seven kills and Shelby Brochetti had six kills and 24 digs.

After falling behind 6-2 in the opening set, the Cougars went on an 8-2 run to take a 10-8 lead.  McCullion had three kills and LaBrie added an ace during the spurt.

McCullion added a dink and a smash down the right side and Swanson followed with an ace to stretch the lead to 16-12.

Brochetti had back-to-back kills and LaBrie added a kill to make it 19-15.

McCullion had two straight smashes from the left side and another dink to give MU a 24-16 lead and the Cougars closed out the set on an attack error by Cairn.

Cairn raced out to a 10-3 lead in the second set and never looked back on the way to a 25-14 win.

In the third set, Cairn had five kills to snap a 6-6 deadlock and grab an 11-6 lead.

Cairn went ahead 15-8 and MU never got closer than seven the rest of the way.

Misericordia jumped out to a big lead in the fourth set to stay alive.  McCullion had four kills and LaBrie added a pair of kills to give MU a quick 9-3 lead.

LaBrie added a smash from the left side and combined with Stack on a block for a 15-9 advantage.

After Cairn rallied to take a 21-20 lead, McCullion hit through two Highlanders blockers to tie it and a Cairn error gave MU the lead.

Swanson put MU ahead 23-21 with a smash down the middle.  After an MU service error, McCullion made it 24-22 with a kill from the back row.

Brochetti clinched the win with a push deep in the left corner.

Cairn jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the fifth set and cruised to a 15-9 win.

Misericordia, 12-10, will host Eastern, Wednesday at 7:00.