The Binghamton volleyball team was defeated by Villanova in a five-set thriller on Wednesday night. After dropping two to none, BU won sets three and four. However, the Bearcats fell short in set five as the team suffered its third straight loss.

“I was happy with our performance, especially when comparing it to last weekend,” said Binghamton head coach Allie Yaeger. “We fought, we competed [and] we played really well at times.”

The first set was highly contested throughout as the Bearcats (1-3) and Wildcats (1-2) traded points to begin. With the score tied at 15, Binghamton used a 6-2 run, topped off by a kill from graduate student outside hitter Tsvetelina Ilieva to go up 21-17 as Villanova burned its first timeout. The Wildcats responded with a 6-2 run of their own to knot things up at 23. The set would go into overtime with Villanova taking set one 28-26.

“We weren’t disciplined on defense and we had too many errors in that first set,” Yaeger said. “If we would’ve done those things a little bit better, we would have been able to close.”

Villanova kept the momentum in the second set, winning 25-16. Binghamton went down early and was unable to recover. After exchanging runs with the score at 20-16 in favor of the Wildcats, they closed out the set on a 5-0 run.

“We’re just trying to figure out what is the best product to put out come conference play,” Yaeger said. “We’re trying to find answers and figure it out as a team.”

In set three, after a slow start, Binghamton bounced back to dominate, 25-16. With the score tied at four, the Bearcats went on a 6-0 run, capped by a service ace from junior setter Lottie Scully to make it 10-4. BU would hold the lead the rest of the way to stay in the match.

“We served well,” Yaeger said. “If we can do a better job at getting the ball in when we serve, we are a very good team.”

Despite a closer set four, the Bearcats kept the ball rolling in as they squeezed out a 25-21 win. After a close set all the way through, Binghamton pulled away with a 3-0 run to go up 17-13. Despite the Wildcats staying in it, a kill from freshman right side hitter Viktoria Dimitrova secured the set victory for BU to knot things at two sets apiece.

“I thought we [serve] received very well, and I thought we served really well, besides the miscues in sets one and two,” Yaeger said.

Looking to complete the reverse sweep, BU got in front early, winning the first two points of the fifth and final set. With the Wildcats up 8-7, they used a 6-1 run to go up 14-8. Binghamton was unable to recover, falling 15-10, despite two kills from Ilieva and Dimitrova with the match on the line, as Villanova escaped with the victory.

Ilieva led the way with 17 kills while Dimitrova added an impressive 14 of her own. Notably, Binghamton had six aces in the match while out-blocking the Wildcats 13-6.

“[Dimitrova] played an awesome game,” Yaeger said. “It’s so exciting to see her have such a great match when she’s just a freshman for us. [Ilieva] was unstoppable last night in my opinion … When we needed [Ilieva] to put the ball away, she put the ball away for us.”

Binghamton will look to get back in the win column as it takes on Central Connecticut State to kick off the Fairfield Invitational. First serve is set for 3 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 6 at Mahoney Arena in Fairfield, Connecticut.