It takes about 10 hours to travel from Kent to Clemson, S.C., but the Kent State volleyball team made the trip this weekend, hoping to bounce back from its first loss of the season.

The trip home may have seemed a lot longer than that after the Flashes lost all three matches at the Clemson Classic on Friday and Saturday. The team’s record dropped to 9-4 on the season.

Clemson beat the Flashes 3-0 Friday, in their first ever meeting winning the individual games by scores of 31-29, 31-29 and 30-22. The Tigers’ victory snapped their own two-game losing streak .

Appalachian State came into its match against the Flashes on Saturday afternoon with a 2-9 record, and the team had lost four matches in a row. However, the Mountaineers upset the Flashes by a 3-2 score.

As in their first loss of the season, to Binghamton on Sept. 7, the Flashes lost the first two games of the match to Appalachian State but won the next two to force a fifth game. Appalachian State never trailed in the fifth game and won it, 15-12.

Georgia State (9-6) would add to the Flashes’ misery Saturday evening with a 3-1 victory. Once again the Flashes fell behind 2-0, and even though they won game three, they lost the fourth game 30-27.

Despite the team’s three losses over the weekend, senior defensive specialist Laura Jensen was named to her third consecutive all-tournament team after registering 54 digs in the three matches.

The Flashes will look to end their four-match losing streak when they begin Mid-American Conference play later this week. The team plays at Akron on Friday night and travels to Buffalo for a match Saturday afternoon.

Contact volleyball reporter Doug Gulasy at [email protected].