COLUMBIA, Mo. – A tri-match featuring three Top 25 teams that was originally scheduled for mid-September finally took place on Monday (Oct. 30) as postseason play draws near. The rare Monday matches pitted ninth-ranked Missouri Baptist women's volleyball against No. 15 Columbia College for a non-conference contest with no effect on the final AMC standings, and No. 21 Central Methodist.
The Spartans dropped the first match of the day to Columbia in straight sets [33-31, 25-20, 25-25-14] but bounced back with a sweep of Central Methodist – 25-21, 25-19, 25-17. Splitting the non-conference matches, MBU moves to 21-5 overall and 4-4 against Top 25 opponents this season.
Playing on the Cougars' home court, MBU was locked into a tight battle from the get-go. The largest lead for either team in Set One was just three points. It was no surprise that the back-and-forth affair turned into a marathon set. The Spartans reached set point first at 24-23 with a
Gabi Jakubowska kill. From there, eight more ties ensued with four more set point opportunities for the Spartans at 25-24, 27-26, 29-28, and 30-29. Unfortunately, Columbia had an answer each time and closed the set with back-to-back kills from Ellie Rockers and Alayna Rooks.
The Cougars used momentum from the thrilling first to jump out to a commanding 17-8 lead in Set Two. MoBap found a second gear and put together a 7-1 run to get within two at 21-19. Columbia put the Spartans' run to rest scoring four of the last five points to win 25-20.
Missouri Baptist never led in the third frame and was unable to recover from a costly 9-0 run by the Cougars in the middle of set. CC won handily 25-14 to hand the Spartans just their second 3-0 loss of the season.
Gabi Jakubowska paced MoBap with 13 kills on .370 hitting and added two solo blocks.
Sara Klunder also reached double-digit kills for the 20
th time this season with 10 kills but was held to her lowest hitting clip of the year (.107%).
In the Central Methodist win, Jakubowska was once again a favorite of setters
Maiana Coelho and
Sidney Hogan. The Katowice, Poland sophomore led all players with 14 kills on .417 hitting against the 21
st-ranked Eagles. More Spartans joined the party in the win with
Tayler Neal pitching in nine kills,
Kassie Lee going near perfect with eight kills on nine swings (.889%) along with four blocks,
Sara Klunder with seven kills, and
Maria Hanusik with six.
Natalie Edson led the Spartans defensively against CMU with nine digs.
The Spartans will finish out the regular season on the road with a trip to Arkansas to take on Williams Baptist University and Central Baptist College on Thursday and Friday. Heading into the trip undefeated, MBU will have a chance to clinch at least a share of the AMC regular season title on Thursday and with wins on Thursday and Friday, can clinch the title outright.
