Box Score ST. LOUIS- [BOX SCORE] Missouri Baptist Women's Volleyball was pushed to the brink by Lindenwood-Belleville on Wednesday night but came away with a gritty four-set victory (32-30, 25-10, 14-25, 27-25).
The first set of the night may have been the most important for the Spartans. Both teams threw haymakers but neither side could build a lead of more than two points. MBU found themselves backed into a corner down 30-29 but Tina Medanovic delivered a clutch kill to keep the Spartans alive. After the 11th lead change, Missouri Baptist captured the last two points to go up 1-0.
Set two certainly lacked the drama of the opening frame. Buoyed by the momentum from the first set, MBU stormed out of the gates and never gave LU-Belleville a chance. They took 13 of the first 15 points and cruised to a 25-10 victory.
The Lynx rediscovered their game in set three and regained the momentum with a lopsided 25-14 victory. The Spartans were in it early at 9-8 but the home team pulled away with a 9-1 run. That also brought the crowd back into it.
LU-Belleville carried that momentum to another strong start in the fourth set. They jumped out to a quick 9-4 lead and MBU needed a timeout to regroup. After the TO, the Spartans found their focus and it was game-on. The teams went back and forth in similar fashion to what we saw in set one. The Spartans finally forced a ball-handling error at 26-25 to finish off the match. Tina Medanovic and Mallory Dillon took over, combining for 18 kills in the final set.
Missouri Baptist had several candidates for player of the match. Medanovic set a career-high with 22 kills on 31 attempts (.613 hitting percentage) and added five total blocks at the net. Dillon posted 22 kills of her own, the sixth time this season she's exceeded 20 in a match. The senior was also big on the defensive side, equaling her season-high of 18 digs.
Megan Huffman contributed 55 assists, nine more than her previous career-high. The redshirt freshman played the entire match, as the Spartans were without the services of backup setter Darby Santos due to injury.
Freshmen Cate Cigarini and Kelly Wilson were also key for MBU with eight and nine kills, respectively. Reigning AMC Defender of the Week, Natalie Gremaud followed Dillon in the digs category with nine of her own.
The Spartans moved to 17-4 on the season and 6-0 in conference play.
With that, Missouri Baptist can finally look ahead to the match they circled when the schedule first came out. The Columbia Cougars come to town on Friday night at 7 pm. It will be a rematch of the 2015 National Championship.
