ST. LOUIS – Day Two of the MBU Classic was a mixed bag for Spartan Women's Volleyball splitting with No. 8 Park University and Lindsey Wilson College. In the much-anticipated Top-10 matchup against former AMC rival Park, Missouri Baptist won the first set but dropped the next three to the Pirates in a 25-21, 18-25, 20-25, 19-25 defeat. To close out the tournament, the Spartans gutted out a five-set win over Lindsey Wilson – 25-23, 20-25, 25-20, 24-26, 15-8.
 
MoBap finished the weekend 3-1 with wins over St. Ambrose, Saint Xavier, and Lindsey Wilson to move to 18-4 on the year. The Spartans are now 2-3 against Top 25 opponents this season after the 3-1 loss to No. 8 Park.
 
Following a five-match slate last week, the Spartans will have a lighter load in the coming days. The lone match this week is one that's always circled on the calendar: No. 13 Columbia College (20-5, 5-0 AMC). The Cougars come to town for a mid-week battle of AMC unbeatens with large conference implications. The winner of Wednesday's contest will jump into the driver's seat for the AMC regular-season title.
 
(8) Park (Mo.) def. (7) Missouri Baptist, 3-1 [21-25, 25-18, 25-20, 25-19]
It was a hot start on Saturday for the Spartans jumping out to a 10-5 lead. The tide turned in favor of the Pirates for a short period of time with a 4-0 answer. Park eventually tied the set at 14-14 but couldn't push past the threshold. MBU never trailed in the set and broke away from the eighth-ranked Pirates late for a 25-21 win. Senior Sara Klunder set the tone for the Spartans with seven kills and two block assists. Tayler Neal and Kassie Lee also combined for nine kills in the opening set.
 
Things went downhill from there for MBU as Park had its best set of the match. The Spartans fell behind by as much as eight [20-12] and despite narrowing the margin to four, it wasn't enough to overcome Park's hot hand. The Pirates hit .441% for the set with 16 kills and just one attack error.
 
The visitors did a good job of keeping Set One star Sara Klunder in check with just two kills in each of the second and third sets. Considering the career day Klunder had, slowing her down was the recipe for Park's seventh win in eight tries over the Spartans. MBU's lone win over the Pirates in the last eight matchups came in the 2021 NAIA National Championship.
 
Sophomore Sidney Hogan put up a career-best 40 assists and matched her career-high in digs (9). Tayler Neal was one of the direct beneficiaries of Hogan's sets leading the Spartans in kills with. Neal was also active defensively with 15 digs in the match. Klunder was right behind Neal with 16 kills and a match-best five blocks.
 
Another career-high in the Park match came from junior DS Natalie Edson, who tied libero Kaylee Hanger for a match-high in digs with 19.
 
(7) Missouri Baptist def. Lindsey Wilson, 3-2 [25-23, 20-25, 25-20, 24-26, 15-8]
With both teams playing their fourth match of the tournament, it was a fight to the finish and one that went the distance.
 
Missouri Baptist got the pendulum swinging with a tight 25-23 win in Set One despite an early six-point deficit. It was the Blue Raiders turn in Set Two. Immediately after it was tied 11-all, Lindsey Wilson used a 9-2 run to pull away for good in a 25-20 win.
 
Sara Klunder put on an offensive display in the third frame to put the Spartans up by a set again. Klunder went off for 10 kills of MBU's 18 kills in the set. With at least one set to go, Klunder had already reached her previous career-high (21) after three sets.
 
No. 7 MoBap appeared to have control in the fourth set and needed just two more points to close out the match in four. However, Lindsey Wilson had different plans. At 23-19, the Blue Raiders rallied, forced some untimely MBU errors, and forced a tiebreaker set after ending the set on a 7-1 run.
 
The pendulum swung back and forth a few times in the fifth set and the final swing landed on the Spartans' side. Trailing 6-4, head coach Chris Nichols took a timeout and then the Spartans proceeded to go on a game changing 6-1 run. LWC scored one more time before a 5-0 Spartan run to finish off the match.
 
Not only did senior middle blocker Sara Klunder achieve a career-high of 26 kills, but she also eclipsed 1,000 career kills with her second-to-last kill of the match. She becomes the first Spartan to hit the 1,000-kill milestone since Caterina Cigarini '19 and 10^th on record.
 
Coming off her career-high against Park, Sidney Hogan posted her first career double-double with 30 assists and a career-high 12 digs.
 
Other Notable Performances
Liz van Houwelingen – 13 kills (career-high)
Tayler Neal – 16 kills, 9 digs
Maria Hanusik – 9 kills, 12 digs
Kirsten van der Vleuten – 5 kills, .375%, 2 blocks
Kaylee Hanger – 23 digs, 5 assists, 3 aces
Maiana Coelho – 32 assists, 6 digs
Natalie Edson – 9 digs, 3 aces