McPHERSON, Kan. --- The McPherson College volleyball team won for the seventh time in eight outings Friday night, kicking off Homecoming weekend with a 25-22, 25-21, 32-30 Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference win over Southwestern College at the Sport Center.
The Bulldogs (16-7, 9-5 KCAC) and Moundbuilders (8-14, 4-10 KCAC) opened the match on even terms with the first significant run going McPherson's way. Trailing 11-10, the Bulldogs scored five in a row - helped by consecutive aces by
Kaitlyn Heinis (Oviedo, Fla.) - to take a 15-11 lead. Southwestern responded with four straight points to knot the match at 15-15. The teams traded side-outs to push the score to 17-17 before McPherson went on a 5-1 run built aroun a block by
Devrie Sombers (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and
Sadie Atkins (Altamont, Kan.) and three kills by
Lexi Kite (Thorton, Colo.). The 'Builders fought back with a 4-1 run to cut the Bulldog lead to one at 23-22.
Jessica Sanders (Rhome, Texas) hammered home a kill to give McPherson the side-out and set point, then ended the set with a block.
Southwestern grabbed an early lead in the second set, leading 11-9 before an Atkins kill gave McPherson the ball and sent Heinis back to serve. The Bulldogs scored the next 10 points on Heinis' serve, including three aces in a four-serve stretch, to take a 20-11 lead before a service error gave the Moundbuilders back the serve. Southwestern would rally, however, going on an 8-2 run and fighting off a pair of set points to get the score to 24-21. McPherson closed out the set with a
Jocelyn Cochran (Newton, Kan.) kill to take a 2-0 lead.
The third match as a thriller from start to finish that saw the score tied on 34 occasions and a maximum lead of three points - McPherson led 14-11, then traded points with Southwestern to push the score to 17-14 before the Moundbuilers were able to string together consecutive points. With the score tied at 21-21, McPherson scored consecutive points on Kite kills - the second capping a marathon rally. Southwestern rallied with three straight points, getting the side-out on a kill by Catabrean Baumann at the net and back-to-back aces by Samantha Lang to give the Moundbuilders set point at 24-23. The Bulldogs erased that set point and one more before gaining the upper hand with a block by Sanders and Atkins to grab a 26-25 lead. It was Southwestern's turn to dig deep at that juncture, erasing three straight match points as the teams traded side-outs. The Moundbuilders saw two more set-clinching opportunities disappear, the last coming on a Sombers kill off a Southwestern free ball to tie the match at 30-30. A Sadie Atkins kill after a Kite attack was blocked back put McPherson up 31-30 and the Bulldogs finally closed out the match when Atkins and Sombers stuffed an Abby Warnke attack.
Kite posted a 15-kill, 14-dig double-double to lead the Bulldogs (16-7, 9-5 KCAC).
Leia Seiler (Fort Lupton, Colo.) added 10 kills, a dig and a block assist, while Sanders had nine kills, an ace, two digs and five blocks (three solo). Heinis had a team-high 23 assists and five of McPherson's eight service aces. Cochran added five kills and nine digs, while libero
Emily Warner (Wichita, Kan.) had 20 digs.
The Moundbuilders were led by 14 kills and 11 digs by Amber Martinez. Martinez also had three block assists. Setter Catabrean Baumann nearly had a double-double of her own with 37 assists, eight digs and five kills.
"Winning 32-30 in the third set to finish off the sweep showed strong mental toughness for the Bulldogs," said head coach
Jessica Cleveland. "They showed heart and fought with the long rallies. Seiler and Atkins stepped in tonight to score big when Southwestern wasn't expecting. Warner dug 20 balls and Heinis was a game-changer with her aces. Tonight we were a balanced team and we hope to carry momentum into our match at Oklahoma Wesleyan [Saturday]."
It'll be a short turnaround for the Bulldogs, who travel to Oklahoma Wesleyan University for a 2 p.m. varsity match on Saturday. The Eagles won the earlier match-up between the schools in five sets on September 14 in McPherson.
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