St. Louis, Mo. - Missouri Baptist women's volleyball team overcame some true adversity on Thursday's semifinal match of the AMC Volleyball Championship Tournament in a grueling five-set victory.
From the beginning of the match, it was obvious that every point would be hotly contested by both teams. The Pirates struck first blood and began the game with an early 3-0 lead. The Spartans quickly answered and from that point forward, the Spartans slowly got their footing. Led by the stellar play of Casey Chernin, the Spartans pulled away in the latter portion of the set, winning 25-15.
The second set went back and forth early. Park led 8-7 when the Spartans suffered what nearly proved to be the worst injury of the season. Current AMC Volleyball Player of the Week, setter Lauren Stuckel, went down hard on her ankle. Stuckel remained on the ground for several minutes while the MBU athletic trainer Michelle Crocker attended to the injury. Stuckel was helped off the court and went immediately into the training room before a silent crowd.
Missouri Baptist looked to sophomore Sara Mohesky to fill Stuckel's shoes and in her first play, she recorded an assist. Though Mohesky played well, the Spartans seemed to rally together in the face of adversity. Every point that the Spartans put on the board gave the team more confidence. The Pirates led 22-21 when Stuckel returned to the match. Though she favored the ankle slightly, her return sparked the crowd. However, MBU was not able to complete the comeback, dropping set two, 23-25.
The Spartans came out big in the third set. The team started with an 8-3 advantage and never looked back. Lucy Ford and Molly DeClue led the team offense in the 25-22 victory.
The fourth set was all Pirates early. Patricia Souza and Mariana Vogado led the Park offense to build an 8-3 early lead. Park continued to pressure the Spartans and gained a 21-11 advantage. MBU mounted a late comeback and brought it all the way back to a 23-23 tie. However, Park held on to win 25-23 to force a tiebreak set.
The Spartans began the fifth set in a big way. In the shortened frame, the team led 3-0 early. After taking an 11-5 lead, MBU looked to close out the match. Lucy Ford came up with a big kill and added a block late to help the team win a trip to the AMC finals on Saturday afternoon against Columbia College with a 15-6 tiebreaker victory.
Missouri Baptist will meet Columbia College for the third time this season. Columbia won the season series 2-0 and only gave up one set victory to the Spartans. It will be a clash of two, top 25, teams at Columbia College on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
