COLUMBIA, Mo. – For the fourth year in a row, the Missouri Baptist University women's volleyball team will be vying for the AMC Volleyball Tournament championship. With a 25-16, 25-22, 25-12 sweep of No. 3 seed William Woods on Friday in the semifinals, the Spartans punched their finals ticket and set up a third meeting this season with conference rival and No. 1 seed Columbia College.
The matchup is a repeat of the 2020-21 and 2021 tournament championships, both of which the Spartans won in straight sets. For MBU to raise its third consecutive tournament championship banner, it will have to unseat a Cougars team that's riding a 10-match winning streak, ranked 16
th in the NAIA, and has defeated the Spartans twice this season in Southwell Complex.
Improving to 28-3 on the year, No. 12-ranked Missouri Baptist extended its current winning streak to six matches. Meanwhile, the Spartans ended William Woods' season at 15-17 overall after the Owls went 8-2 in conference to secure the No. 3 seed in this week's tournament.
Missouri Baptist built early leads in the first and third sets and created enough separation that the Owls couldn't claw back in the 25-16, 25-12 wins. WWU's best chance at stealing a game from the Spartans came in Set Two when it tied the game at 21-all. MoBap recovered at just the right time, scoring in four of the next five rallies with a
Liz van Houwelingen-
Sara Klunder block to cap off a 25-22 set win.
Rising to the occasion on Friday were freshman opposite hitter
Gabi Jakubowska and senior middle blocker
Carlee Wise. Jakubowska, who was named to the All-AMC First Team on Tuesday, got off to a quick start recording nine of her match-best 12 kills in the first and second sets. The announcers were calling
Carlee Wise's name just often as the All-AMC Second Team selection posted eight kills in Sets 1 & 2, and 11 for the night. The two combined to hit .377 for the match while the rest of the team was limited to .130%.
It was another strong defensive performance for the Spartans, who held their sixth straight opponent under .150 hitting. In fact, the Owls broke even on the day (.000%) finishing with just as many kills as they had attack errors (19). Leading the charge were libero
Rachel Kinney with a match-best 18 digs followed by
Emma Lattimore with 10. The latter finished with seven kills, one block and two service aces to end the match.
MBU's setters
Shannon McLain and
Luiza Goncalves also got in on the passing action pulling up seven and six digs, respectively. First Team All-Conference selection
Shannon McLain averaged 11 assists per set to pace the Spartans with 33.
Riding the hot hands of Jakubowska and Wise, the Spartans didn't have to rely as heavily on AMC Player of the Year
Sara Klunder. The 6-3 junior from Hudson, Iowa notched seven kills with five coming in Set Two to go along with two blocks.
First serve for Saturday's AMC Championship Final is set for 12 p.m.
