WINFIELD, Kan. (macbulldogs.com) --- The McPherson College volleyball team closed out its regular season with a dominating sweep of Southwestern College Friday night at Stewart Field House. The Bulldogs won 25-16, 25-16, 25-15.
The win, coupled with an Oklahoma Wesleyan loss at Tabor, allowed the Bulldogs (20-10, 15-7 Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference) to clinch the No. 4 seed in the upcoming KCAC Volleyball Tournament at the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson. The victory also gave McPherson back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time in program history.
McPherson scored the first three points of the match and used a .259 attack percentage to build a 24-13 lead. Southwestern (3-25, 1-21 KCAC) killed off a trio of set points before a
Devrie Sombers (Colorado Springs, Colo., Pinecreek HS) kill ended the frame.
The second set opened fairly evenly, but the Bulldogs used a 5-0 run on the serve of
Morgan Little (Las Vegas, Nev., Hutchinson CC) to gain some separation. McPherson later used an 8-3 run bo build a 22-13 lead. The Lady Builders scored three of the next four, but a Kanami Ellis service error left the Bulldogs one point away from a 2-0 lead. The visitors immediately cashed in as
Lexi Kite (Thornton, Colo., Prairie View HS) registered a kill to end the set.
McPherson got off to a fast start in the third set as well, using an 8-1 run to extend a 4-3 lead to 12-4. Southwestern rallied for five of the next six points - mainly on Bulldog miscues - to cut the lead to just four at 13-9. The Bulldogs continued to steadily add to the advantage, leading 22-13 before the Lady Builders were able to string together back-to-back kills by Alyxandra Blaker and Tiana Nice. McPherson responded, though, with back-to-back kills from
Bree Wallace (Wichita, Kan., East HS) and Kite before
Leia Seiler (Fort Lupton, Colo., Fort Lupton HS) ended the match with a solo block of a Nice attack.
Kite posted a 16-kill, 10-dig double-double while hitting .417 with two aces and two blocks. She pushed her career kill total to 998 and her career block total to 99.
Riley Bradbury (Highlands Ranch, Colo., Rock Canyon HS) and Wallace each added six kills and a pair of digs, while Sombers had five kills and
Mady Woog (Highlands Ranch, Colo., Mountain Vista HS) and Seiler had four apiece.
Little had a team-high 19 assists with eight digs, while
Kaitlyn Heinis (Oviedo, Fla., Paul J. Hagerty HS) added 11 assists and five digs.
Jamie Siess (Tecumseh, Kan., Shawnee Heights HS) added four assists to go with a match-high 23 igs.
The Bulldogs hit .274 as a team with just 10 attack errors and had six service aces -- two each from Kite,
Reven Bradbury (Highlands Ranch, Colo., Rock Canyon HS) and
Rianne Richard (Wichita, Kan., Neosho CC). McPherson also had five blocks - a solo and an assist each from Kite and Seiler, two block assists from Woog, and a block assist apiece from Sombers and Wallace.
Ellis led Southwestern with 10 kills and seven digs. Catabrean Baumann just missed a double-double with 17 assists and eight digs, while Colbi Phillps added 14 digs and Rhian Hunter had eight assists and eight digs.
"Tonight's dominant win was a statement at the end of our regular season, proving we are ready for post season," said head coach
Jessica Cleveland. "We locked in [fourth place]in regular season. I'm proud of how we continue to get better and we got a favorable draw in our pool at the KCAC Tournament next week."
The KCAC Volleyball Tournament begins Thursday, Nov. 9, with two rounds of pool play on two courts. The final round of pool play will be contested on a single court on Friday, Nov. 10. The top two teams in each pool following round-robin play will advance to Saturday's knockout stage with semifinals and the tournament final being contested, again on one court.
As the fourth seed, the Bulldogs will be paired with top-seeded Ottawa (25-9, 19-3), fifth-seeded Oklahoma Wesleyan (19-11, 15-7) and Bethany (11-20, 10-12) as the eighth seed in one pool, while Kansas Wesleyan (23-8, 18-3), Tabor (22-9, 17-5), Sterling (15-14, 10-11) and Saint Mary (16-16, 10-11) will make up the other pool. Ottawa has already clinched the top seed and a share of the regular-season crown due to a season sweep of the Coyotes, while McPherson holds the tiebreaker over Oklahoma Wesleyan due to a season sweep of the Eagles. Sterling and Saint Mary play Saturday evening, with the winner earning the No. 6 seed. The loser will be the No. 7 seed as both hold tiebreakers over the Swedes. Saint Mary swept Bethany, while the Warriors and Swedes split by identical 3-1 scores. Sterling did, however, win a greater percentage of points in their head-to-head matchups (189-183).
Against the teams in their projected pool, McPherson swept Oklahoma Wesleyan twice, split with Bethany and dropped a pair of five-set matches to Ottawa.
