AKRON, Ohio - SIUE volleyball faced a pair of tough matches at the opening day of the Zips Invitational.

The Cougars dropped to 3-5 overall after losses to host Akron and Youngstown State. Akron defeated the Cougars

25-19, 25-16, 25-21. Youngstown State topped SIUE 15-25, 27-25, 25-15, 27-25. SIUE has one more match Saturday at the Zips Invitational with an 11 a.m. CT meeting with Binghamton.

SIUE Head Coach Leah Johnson said the Cougars are taking risks during this non-conference season with lineups and positions.

"There are many positives taking place if we can be patient and work through it," said Johnson.

"Kristen Torre has stepped out into her own," said Johnson of the freshman middle blocker. "Offensively, she is terminal."

SIUE registered more kills than Youngstown State (59-52) behind a match-leading 15 from Brooke Smith. Emma Anderson and Torre added 14 kills each for the Cougars. "I thought Emma Anderson also played steady," Johnson noted.

Johnson said moves to insert freshman Hilary Trevino into the back row and freshman Leslie Lindsey on the right side have been positives.

"They know how high we can play. We're encouraged," said Johnson. "I was pleased that all of our attackers were hitting in the positive," Johnson said.

The Cougars came out strong against Youngstown State with 16 kills on 30 swings in the first set. SIUE had the 8-2 Penguins struggling with just seven kills and six errors in the first set.

The Penguins made their comeback in the second set. Down 21-16, Youngstown State's Chelsea Guerreri served four straight points to get her team back in the match. The Penguins would take the set with kills from Shannon Watson and Alexis Egler.

SIUE also finished with more digs (62-56) against Youngstown State.

Akron, 3-4, opened its own tournament earlier in the day with a three-set victory over the Cougars. Kelsey Augustine paced SIUE's offense with 10 kills.

Chelsea Harvey and Tina Dimitrijevs led the Zips with 14 and 13 kills, respectively.