CONWAY, Ark. – The top-ranked Missouri Baptist University women's volleyball team had no issue putting last week's loss at No. 6 Park behind them. On Friday evening, the Spartans got back to their winning ways and did so with a commanding 25-10, 25-12, 25-13 sweep on the road at Central Baptist College.
Improving to 19-4 on the year and 5-1 in the AMC, Missouri Baptist women's volleyball is now just one win shy of recording the program's 15
th straight 20-win season between former head coach John Yehling and current head coach
Chris Nichols.
MoBap came out firing on all cylinders and out-hit the Mustangs 0.467 to 0.000 in the first set. With 16 kills and just two errors as a team, the ultra-efficient Spartans set the tone early in the match with a 25-10 win in Set 1 and never looked back defeating CBC with scores of 25-12 and 25-13 in the final two frames.
Throughout the rest of the match, the Mustangs hit in the negatives and couldn't find a way to shut down the visitors. There were several lopsided stat comparisons including blocks at 7-1 in favor of the Spartans and 16-1 in favor of MBU.
Individually, several Spartans wreaked havoc on the Mustangs including outside hitter
Isidora Stojovic, opposite hitter
Giovanna Tapigliani, middle blockers
Marina Sanches and
Caterina Cigarini and setter
Morgan Berry.
Stojovic led all scorers with 10 kills, had a season-high hitting percentage of .529, another season-high in service aces (5), 5 digs and 2 block assists. Tapigliani had the second-most kills for the Spartans notching 7 on 15 attempts. The São Paulo, Brazil junior also recorded 4 digs and tied for the team lead in blocks with 3.
Sanches was near perfect on the night with 6 kills on 7 swings (.857) to go along with three assisted blocks in just two sets of action. Fellow middle blocker
Caterina Cigarini also played just two sets and had a well-rounded stat line of 4 kills, .444 attack %, a season-high 3 service aces, 4 digs and 2 block assists.
Three-time AMC Setter of the Week
Morgan Berry registered 28 assists, 9 digs and a new career-high 6 service aces. The six service aces is also a new individual match best for the Spartans.
No. 1 Missouri Baptist wraps up its stay in Arkansas on Saturday with a 1 p.m. matchup against Lyon College (13-9, 4-3 AMC).
