SIOUX CITY, Iowa – No. 3-ranked Missouri Baptist University is headed back to the NAIA Women's Volleyball National Championship Quarterfinals after taking down 14^th-ranked Central Methodist University (Mo.) in Pool C on Wednesday, 25-14, 25-22, 21-25, 25-21. Exiting Pool Play C undefeated propelled the storied Spartan women's volleyball program to its sixth national quarterfinal appearance in eight seasons.
 
MBU is set to play No. 21 Northwestern College in tomorrow's Quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m. The Red Raiders emerged out of Pool F with perceived upsets of sixth-ranked College of Saint Mary (Neb.) and No. 12-ranked Eastern Oregon University.
 
The defending national champs hit another milestone on Wednesday recording win No. 30 on the year. Improving to 30-2 overall, Missouri Baptist notched its sixth 30-win season under the direction of head women's volleyball coach Chris Nichols.
 
The Spartans were on fire to begin the match taking Set One from the Eagles, 25-14. With five kills apiece, Giovanna Tapigliani and Emma Lattimore paced MBU's dominant attack that totaled 17 kills, two blocks and a red-hot .417 hitting percentage.
 
A slow start to the second stanza forced the Spartans to play catch up. It wasn't until the 11-10 mark that MoBap took its first lead of Set Two. With the two teams knotted up at 15-all, Missouri Baptist made a move with a 5-1 run that CMU quickly countered. Having to work hard for each point, the Spartans broke away from another tie at 22-22 with the last three points.
 
On the brink of elimination, No. 14 Central Methodist put together its best set of the match with 14 kills and a .256 hitting percentage, while holding the Spartans to a lackluster .102%. Despite playing from behind for most of the set, MBU had its chances late to swing the momentum in their favor. With MoBap in hot pursuit, CMU called a timeout at 22-21 which did the trick for the Eagles. The No. 2 seed in Pool C scored the next three points and denied the Spartans their 10^th sweep in a row. MBU's consecutive sets won streak, which began at Stephens College on Oct. 20, ended at 32.
 
MoBap came back with vengeance recording kills in the first three rallies and a Manuela Vargas service ace to force an early CMU timeout. The Eagles called another timely timeout to stop the bleeding and pulled within one. MBU never trailed and went by as much as eight late in the set. With set and match point at 24-17, the Spartans went through a rough patch surrendering four straight points to the Eagles. In a relatively anticlimactic finish, CMU setter Gabi Owczarek was called for a double hand delivering the final point to the Spartans.
 
As a team, MBU finished with 58 kills on .211 hitting, but for the second straight match, the Spartans were outblocked by their opponent. On the other side of the net, CMU had eight blocks to MBU's four, and held a slight advantage in digs as well, 73-71.
 
From a passing standpoint, the Spartans relied heavily on libero Ariana Macies, who had a match-best 26 digs, as well as setter Manuela Vargas and Emma Lattimore, who both recorded double-doubles. Vargas, the 2020 NAIA National Championship MVP, finished the match with 49 assists and 12 digs, while Lattimore had a stat line of 11 kills, 11 digs, 3 assists, 2 service aces and 1 block.
From the service line, sophomore Maria Hanusik joined Lattimore with multiple service aces registering a match-best four.
 
Offensively, MBU had three players with double-digit kills led by Giovanna Tapigliani (16), Isidora Stojovic (12) and Emma Lattimore (11). The Spartans' middles combined for 14 more kills with seven apiece.