The Misericordia University volleyball team dropped its Freedom Conference opener to Wilkes, 3-2 (25-21, 19-25, 17-25, 25-16, 6-15), Wednesday night at the Anderson Center.

Cailin McCullion led Misericordia with 16 kills while Samantha Baro added nine kills.

Kellyn Swanson had eight kills and 20 digs.

Meghan Stack had seven kills and four aces and Nicole Korgeski had seven kills, three aces and 25 assists.

The Cougars rallied from a 20-18 deficit to take the first set, 25-21. 

After a Wilkes service error, McCullion's kill tied it and she added another to give MU a 22-20 lead and Stack followed with a kill to make it 23-20 and the Cougars closed it out a pair of Wilkes attack errors.

Trailing 2-1, the Cougars tied the match with a 25-16 in the fourth set.

Down 14-13, MU went on a 7-1 run to take a 20-24 lead.

Stack, McCullion, Korgeski and Swanson all had kills before Swanson and Korgeski combined for a block.

Stack added back-to-back aces to complete the run.

Swanson's kill made it 22-15 and Korgeski won a battle at the net to close out the set.

Wilkes opened the fifth set with five straight points and eventually built a 9-2 lead en route to the clinching victory.

Misericordia, 4-4, 0-1, will host Well and Penn State Altoona in a tri-match, Sunday.