MBU REMAINS UNDEFEATED IN DAY ONE OF SPARTAN INVITATIONAL
ST. LOUIS – [BOX SCORE HSSU] [BOX SCORE FAU] The Missouri Baptist women's volleyball team opened up play in the Spartan Invitational with a sweep of Harris Stowe State University (Mo.) and Faulkner University (Ala.) on Friday.
The Spartans (22-1, 8-0) played their first game of the day against Harris Stowe State University. MBU took the Hornets in three straight sets (25-11, 25-13, 25-11) with ease and kept HSSU under 10 kills in each set. MBU also held Harris Stowe to a negative hitting percentage through two of the three sets.
Marion Couraud led the Spartans with 13 kills, five digs, three service aces and an impressive 0.611 hitting percentage. Shelby Clifton followed Couraud with 10 kills of her own. The sophomore also recorded three service aces and attack percentage of 0.529.
Mary Grace Graf led the defense with eight kills and held for the highest hitting percentage of the game with 0.750 for six kills off of eight swings with no errors. Natalie Gremaud led the offense with 34 assists for an average of 11.3 assists per set.
The second matchup for the Spartans on the day was Faulkner University.
MBU took an 8-2 run to start things off in the first set. As Missouri Baptist continued to control the set, the team held the Eagles to a 0 hitting percentage and posted their second highest hitting percentage of the match at 0.577 for a final score of 25-11.
The Spartans started off with another big run of 5-2 but Faulkner fought back in the set to tie the score at nine. The teams played point for point at the end of the set with 23 ties. Faulkner raised its hitting percentage by 0.103 but wasn't enough to over-take MBU.
The Eagles tried to keep things close in the third set but Taylor Cook held at the service line for seven serves with two service aces in the sequence to advance the Missouri Baptist lead. MBU cruised right to a 3-0 sweep of Faulkner from there and recorded its highest hitting percentage of 0.652 while holding Faulkner under 0.100.
Mallory Dillon led the Spartans with 20 kills. Cook was right behind Dillon with 10 kills of her own. The senior from Lesterville, Mo., also recorded the highest hitting percentage for the team on the night of 0.529 and recorded only one hitting error as well as nine digs and three service aces.
Ally Krus led the offense with 46 total assists for an impressive average of 15.3.
MBU will continue play in the Spartan Invitational Saturday, Oct. 10 as they will face York College (Neb.) and AMC rival #10 Columbia College in the NAIA Match of the Week.
