LA CROSSE, Wis. – With a big target on their backs as defending national champions, the NAIA's top-ranked Missouri Baptist women's volleyball team saw how small the margin for error is when playing a pair of Top-10 opponents. Tackling the toughest stretch of the 2021 schedule on Friday, the Spartans lost their opener of the Viterbo University Volleyball Classic in five sets to No. 3 Midland and ended the evening with a loss in straight sets to the tournament host and ninth-ranked V-Hawks.
 
MBU (4-2) will have a chance to bounce back on Saturday when it faces a Grand View University squad that's ranked No. 21, but still searching for its first win on the season (0-5).
 
(3) Midland def. (1) Missouri Baptist, 3-2 [25-22, 13-25, 21-25, 28-26, 15-11]
In all too familiar fashion, the Midland-Missouri Baptist match came down to a tiebreaker set, marking the third time in two seasons that the Warriors and Spartans have gone the distance.
 
After a hard-fought first set that went in favor of Midland, MoBap cranked out back-to-back set victories including a convincing win in Set 2 by a score of 25-13. A back-and-forth battle ensued in the fourth and Missouri Baptist even had a chance to put the match away, however, the Spartans squandered their lone match-point opportunity at 25-24 with a service error and then yielded two more points to the Warriors in a 28-26 loss.
 
Midland freshman middle blocker Abbey Ringler was the difference maker in the fifth set as she recorded six kills against the Spartans, including three in a row to close out the game.
 
MBU middle blocker Raylyn Dodd had a field day at the net much like the national championship match. On Friday, Dodd went for 13 kills on 21 swings (.571) and 10 blocks (2 S, 8 A), giving the Fredericktown, Mo. upperclassman 25 blocks in the last two meetings between MBU and Midland.
 
Joining Dodd in double-digit kills was opposite hitter Giovanna Tapigliani, who finished with 16 kills, 7 digs, and 4 blocks. Emma Lattimore was one kill shy of a double-double finishing with 9 kills, 0 attack errors, and 11 digs.
 
Defensively, the Spartans combined for 14 team blocks and had four players with 10+ digs – Macies (19), Hanusik (14), Vargas (12) and Lattimore (11).
 
(9) Viterbo def. (1) Missouri Baptist, 3-0 [25-21, 25-14, 25-17]
Despite a break before the 6 p.m. match, MBU just didn't have enough left in the tank to challenge the V-Hawks on their home court. It showed late in the match when Viterbo was playing its best ball while shutting down the Spartan attack. In the final two sets, the V-Hawks averaged .333 while they held the Spartans to a .016 clip and in the negatives in the third.
 
Viterbo's sweep marks the Spartans' first 3-0 loss of the year and just the second sweep (L) in two seasons.
 
Giovanna Tapigliani led the Spartans in kills (8) and service aces (1), while outside hitter Isidora Stojovic finished with a stat line of 7 kills and 3 blocks.
 
Other leaders included Shannon McLain with 15 assists and Ariana Macies with 14 digs.