PENSACOLA, Fla. (Sept. 3, 2016) - A battle of AVCA top-10 teams lived up to the hype with a five set thriller. The No. 9 Central Missouri Jennies gave No. 2, and defending NCAA Champions, Wheeling Jesuit all they could handle before falling in five sets, 25-18, 21-25, 20-25, 25-23, 5-15. The loss is the Jennies first of the season and puts them at 3-1 after their season-opening weekend.
The Jens landed 12 more kills than the Cardinals, helped by
Cheyanne Lyons' career-high 20.
Kasey Hohlen added 16 and
Molly Lawrence eight.
Kourtney Thompson finished with a game-high 49 assists. Lyons recorded her first career double-double by coming up with 10 digs.
Katie Carlson led the Jennie defense with 13 digs.
In an evenly matched game, the difference seemed to come down to unforced errors. The Jennies finished with 34 attack errors to the Cardinals 25 and UCM committed six service errors to Wheeling Jesuit's three.
The Jennies stormed out of the gates in the first set, scoring the first five points of the match. They never trailed in the set and took a 1-0 lead in the match with a 25-18 win.
The lead was short lived though as the Cardinals took the second and third sets 25-21 and 25-20. The Jens led by as many as five in the second set, 9-4, but the Cardinals came back, helped by a 15-7 run to tie the match. They took the lead by again coming from behind in the third frame. UCM had the Cards on the ropes at 20-18, but Wheeling Jesuit scored the final seven points and took their first lead in the match.
A wild fourth set saw five ties and four lead changes, but the Jennies were able to hang on and force a
decisive fifth set. This time the Jennies were able to withstand a WJC comeback. After trailing by five, 16-11, the Cardinals got to within one at 24-23, but a kill from Lyons ended the frame and tied the match.
Unlike the first four sets, Wheeling Jesuit took charge in the fifth. They stormed out to leads of 5-1 and 10-3 before ending the match with a 15-5 win.
The Cardinals had two with 10+ kills in Katie Campbell with 12 and Lauran Graves with 11. Kayce Krucki played a big role on defense digging out a game-high 34 UCM attacks. Andrea Thobe was in the middle of the action, handing out 28 assists.
Following the tournament, seniors
Maddie Jones and
Kourtney Thompson were named to the All-Tournament team.Â
Central Missouri is back on the road next weekend for the Colorado Premier Challenge in Denver, Colo. They play two on Friday, Sept. 9 against Angelo State and Metro State. How they fare in their first two matches determines who they'll face Saturday, Sept. 10.
