ST. LOUIS – [BOX SCORE BU] [BOX SCORE EU] The Missouri Baptist women's volleyball team split in day one of the Grand View Fall Classic on Friday.
The Spartans (25-3, 8-0) had a rough start to the day with a 3-1 (19-25, 22-25, 25-22, 26-28) loss to No. 4 Biola (Calif.).
The Eagles came on strong and held MBU to a 0 attack percentage in the first set.
Missouri Baptist fought back in set two. The set yielded the highest attack percentage of 0.306 for MBU but it wasn't enough to overthrow Biola.
The Spartans continued to build throughout the match and found their way to a set three win. Missouri Baptist notched 16 kills to the Eagles' 13. The Spartans posted an attack percentage 0.041 higher than that of the percentage posted by Biola.
MBU looked to take set four and send the match to a fifth set. However, Missouri Baptist was cut just short of the set four win as the teams battled past 25.
Mallory Dillon led the Spartans with 20 kills in the match. Hannah Carey followed Dillon with 15 kills off of 30 swings with only three errors for a hitting percentage of 0.400.
The second match-up for MBU was against No. 10 Evangel University (Mo.) where the team notched a 3-1 (25-22, 25-20, 19-25, 25-19) win.
The Spartans took charge right away in set one. Missouri Baptist held Evangel to its lowest hitting percentage of 0.086.
MBU continued the momentum into set two for a 25-20 win. The Spartans posted 12 kills to Evangels eight.
The Crusaders fought back to take set three from Missouri Baptist. Evangel cleared its highest hitting percentage of 0.303 in the set for the 25-19 victory.
The Spartans put the Crusaders back in their place in set four notching 18 kills to Evangels 11. MBU also recorded their highest hitting percentage of the match of 0.308.
Carey led the Spartans in the match with 18 kills and six digs.
Dillon recorded a double-double on the night with 14 kills and 11 digs. Taylor Cook also recorded a double-double of 12 kills and 13 digs.
Kristina Medanovic also had a big game with 11 kills of her own.
Ally Krus recorded 47 assists in the match for an average of 11.75 assists per set.
Haley Pouliezos led the defense with 21 digs for an average of 5.25.
Missouri Baptist will take the court again on Saturday, Oct. 17 to face the host team #25 Grand View University (Iowa) to close out the weekend in the Grand View Fall Classic.
