The Wilmington College volleyball team couldn't overcome slow starts Wednesday and fell in straight sets to Earlham, 25-15, 25-19, 25-20, in non-conference action at Hermann Court.

Earlham scored the first six points in the opening set, and the first eight points in the second set en route to earning wins.

"The difference in the match was we had too many unforced mistakes," said head coach Beth Floyd. "The girls played hard, but we still have to work on communicating."

The one time Wilmington was able earn the edge in the set, the Fightin' Quakers led 15-10 in the third set. However, the unforced mistakes came back to hurt them.

As Earlham scored 10 of the next 12 points, WC errors led directly to seven of those tallies. EC scored 15 of the final 20 points of the third set to secure the straight set win.

"They had a girl with a nice hard jump serve and we didn't handle it well," said Floyd.

Juniors Natalie Sparks (West Jefferson, OH/West Jefferson) and Ashley Miller (Arcanum, OH/Franklin Monroe) combined for 16 of the team's 27 kills. Sophomore Tabby Biegler (Columbus, OH/Briggs) added team-highs with eight digs and three aces.

Sophomore Ariana Neff (Naples, FL/Gulf Coast) distributed a team-high 21 assists.

Wilmington (0-4) travels to Richmond, IN this weekend to compete in the Earlham Tournament.