Kalamazoo, Mich.— Toledo opened up its final conference weekend of the regular season with a 3-1 (18-25, 18-25, 26-24, 25-23) loss at Western Michigan on Friday night.

The Rockets dropped the first two sets in identical fashion, 25-18. They won a back-and-forth third set, 26-24, but dropped a similarly close contest in the fourth set, 25-23.
Four players on UT reached double-digits in kills on Friday night: Annie Beasley and Saige Thomas each had 11, and both Chloee Kleespies and Rachel Vidourek had 10. Carly Townsend registered 41 assists and Lauren Bakaitis had a team-high 15 digs.

The Rockets fall to 12-15 on the year with a 7-8 mark in conference play. Toledo's final regular season match will be on Saturday, Nov. 11 at Northern Illinois at 8:00 p.m. ET.

First Set: The Broncos took an early 3-1 lead, but UT scored the next four points to go ahead 5-3. Beasley had a hand in three of those points, registering two herself and one on a block. WMU retook the lead, 6-5, but three straight points from the Rockets put them up 8-6. Toledo would go up 11-8 at one point, but what followed was a 13-3 run from the Broncos that gave them a 21-14 advantage. UT was not able to recapture any momentum to end the first set and Western Michigan came away with a 25-18 win.

Second Set: The Rockets jumped out to the early lead this time, 5-2, over the Broncos to start the second stanza. WMU wouldn't stay down for long, though, and scored the next seven points to put UT in a four-point hole, 9-5. Toledo played from behind for the rest of the set, unable to retake the lead it had started out with. The Broncos led by as many as seven in the second set and that is the amount they would win by, repeating the first set score of 25-18 to put UT down 2-0 in the match.

Third Set: Toledo fell behind early in the third frame, 6-2, but an 8-2 run gave the Midnight Blue and Gold a 10-8 advantage. The run was highlighted by a pair of kills from Kleespies and two aces from Bakaitis and was the first UT lead since early in the second set. Toledo held a lead for much of the third frame and led by as many as five, 18-13. But the Broncos would not go away; they scored eight of the next nine points to take a 21-19 lead. Not to be outdone, Toledo scored the next three points to go up 22-21, taking advantage of a couple attacking errors from WMU. Scoring continued to come in bunches, with the Broncos accounting for the next three points to bring about a set and match point. The Rockets were having none of that, though. Emma Swope had a thunderous kill and Thomas tallied two terminations to seal the third set, 26-24, and lead Toledo to a fourth frame. The Rockets hit .294 in the third set and Kleespies had a team-best four kills.

Fourth Set: UT led 6-4 to open up play in the fourth set, and Thomas accounted for three of those six points scored. Three straight WMU points- an ace sandwiched between two kills- made it 7-6, but Toledo was able to come back and take a one-point advantage, 10-9. The momentum swung back in favor of the Broncos, who took a 14-11 lead over the Rockets, but the Midnight Blue and Gold clawed their way back to tie up the fourth set at 15-15 and eventually built a three-point lead, 19-16. Five of the next six points came from the Broncos, though, and two straight aces gave them a 21-20 lead late in the fourth frame. Once again, Toledo showed its resilience and scored three straight to take a 23-22 lead, with Swope tallying two of those points off crucial kills. Those would be the final points of the night for the Rockets, as WMU would score the final four to win the fourth set, 25-23, and the match, 3-1. The Rockets hit a match-high .371 in the final game and Beasley had six kills.