Posted: Sep 16, 2011
Baker Box Score
OLATHE, Kan. -- The 16th-ranked Bellevue University volleyball team won a pair of four-set matches Friday at the MidAmerica Nazarene Invitational. The Bruins opened with a 3-1 (21-25, 25-21, 27-25, 25-15) win over the host school MidAmerica Nazarene, before finishing the evening with a 3-1 (25-22, 30-28, 16-25, 25-23) victory over Baker University.
Bellevue has now won seven-straight matches and is 11-4 overall.
The Bruins continue action on Saturday with a 10:00 a.m. match against Evangel University, before concluding the tournament with a 2:00 p.m. contest against 24th-ranked Grand View University.
Match 1 - Bellevue 3, MidAmerica Nazarene 1
After dropping the opening set, 25-21, the Bruins won the next three sets, 25-21, 27-25, 25-15, snapping MNU's seven-match winning streak.
Maureen Wardian hit .484 and pounded a season-high 17 kills to pace the Bruin offense. Kali Schnacker added 13 kills and Jordan Broady dished out 46 assists to go along with 16 digs for her fifth double-double of the season. Mollie Gavin recorded a career-high 17 digs.
Bellevue hit just .061 and was plagued by seven attacking errors as they lost the first set, 25-21. Sunny Bell led the Bruins with four kills.
Six kills by Wardian and eight attacking errors by the Pioneers highlighted the Bruins' third set win. BU hit .222 and Andrea Johnson registered two service aces.
Trailing 24-19, the Bruins stormed back to win the third set, 27-25. BU capitalized on three MNU attacking errors on set point and Bell recorded three kills in the comeback to stun host MNU.
The Bruins carried the momentum into the fourth set and raced out to a 15-6 lead. The Pioneers scored six of the next 10 points, but never got any closer as the Bruins cruised to the 25-15 fourth set win. Annie Benson, Schnacker and Wardian combined for 14 of the Bruins' 17 kills to pace BU's fourth-set attack.
Match 2 - Bellevue 3, Baker 1
Schnacker and Benson both collected 14 kills and Wardian added 13 to pace Bellevue's offense in the Bruins' 25-22, 30-28, 16-25, 25-23 win over Baker.
Broady notched her sixth double-double with 49 assists and 11 digs.
Meghan Evans recorded a career-high 29 digs to lead BU's defensive effort.
After the Bruins opened the first set with a 3-1 lead, Baker reeled off eight-straight points and maintained a six-point advantage at 15-9, before Bellevue responded with six-consecutive points to knot the score at 15 apiece. The two teams traded points until the Bruins closed the set on a 5-1 run to take the opener 25-22.
Benson paced BU in the opener with five kills on .400 hitting. Wardian and Bell added four kills each.
The Bruins raced out to a 7-2 lead in the second. But the Wildcats used a pair of BU attack errors to pull to within one point at 10-9. Two kills by Schnacker highlighted a four-point Bruin run to push the score to 16-11. Baker forced a Bellevue timeout after scoring four-consecutive points to pull to within one at 16-15.
An attack error by Benson allowed the Wildcats to tie the set at 18-all. Baker took its first lead of the frame at 21-20 on a block by Jasmyn Turner and Sydney Pemberton off a Schnacker attack. The two squads went back-and-forth the remainder of the second until the Bruins finally prevailed on their fifth set point following a kill by Benson and an attack error by Pemberton, giving BU the 30-28 marathon win.
Schnacker had six kills and Benson pounded five to lead BU in the second game.
Baker used a 9-0 run midway throught the third set and held the Bruins to a .-.026 attack percentage as the Wildcats breezed to the 25-15 win. Caitlyn Rueth came off the bench to record four kills in five swings with no errors.
After Bellevue gained an early 7-2 advantage in the fourth set, the Wildcats clawed their way back to within one point at 10-9. Kills by Wardian and Rueth highlighted a 4-0 Bruin run as BU pushed the lead back to five points at 14-9. Baker was able to get to within two points on three occasions, but a pair of kills by Benson and Schnacker and a service ace by Evans helped put BU up 24-19. Baker saved four match points before a kill by Wardian ended the match at 25-23.
