The Missouri Southern volleyball swept its opening matches today, winning 3-0 over New Mexico Highlands and 3-2 over East Central at the South Central Classic.
Southern (3-3) took home the first set in a sweep of New Mexico Highlands, winning by scores of 25-21, 26-24 and 25-13.
The Lions trailed 4-2 early on in the first set against the Cowgirls, trailing 4-2, but a 5-1 run from Southern gave the Lions a 7-5 lead. Highlands (3-2) re-took the lead at 12-9, but a 7-2 run gave the Lions a 17-14 advantage, forcing a Cowgirls timeout. The Lions led from that point out to take the opening set.
The second set was back and forth with ten tied scores and four lead changes and Highlands led 24-21 late in the set, but a 5-0 run from the Lions gave Southern set two.
The third set was all Southern as the Lions led from open to end.
Katie Politte led the team with 12 kills and added seven digs and five blocks, while hitting .286 in the match.Krishna Merriman had eight kills and eight digs, while Abby Finder dished out 30 assists and 13 digs. Kaite Wiele had a match-high 15 digs, while Callie Whetstone added five blocks.
In the Lions' second match of the day, Southern took on host East Central (0-8), winning three to two. Individual set scores were 25-16, 21-25, 11-25, 25-17 and 16-14.
Southern led from start to finish in the opening set, hitting .344 as a team and winning easily.
In the second set, the Lions trailed by ten points on two different occasions, the last at 23-13, but Southern went on an 8-0 run, forcing two ECU timeouts, the last at 23-21. The Tigers, however would recover and score the final two points of the set to even the match at one.
The Lions opened up a 4-2 lead in the third set, but East Central scored six-straight points to lead 8-4 and didn't trail from there on out. The Tigers hit .684 in the set en route to the easy win.
Southern responded, however. The Lions went down 5-2 in the fourth set, but came back and tied the set at five, eventually going ahead 7-5, forcing an ECU timeout. The Lions led 20-13, forcing another ECU timeout and Southern cruised to the set win, forcing a fifth and deciding set.
In the finale, the Lions opened up a 7-3 lead, forcing an ECU timeout and a point later, Southern led at the turn. ECU, however, responded and scored four in a row to cut the lead to one, forcing a Lions' timeout. The Tigers tied the set at ten and went ahead 11-10 on the next rally.
ECU led 12-11, but a kill from Politte tied the set up again. Two-straight points gave the Tigers a 14-12 lead and brought up match point. Two big points, however, by the Lions tied the set and a kill from Callie Whetstone gave the Lions set point. An ace from Wiele gave the Lions the match in dramatic fashion.
Merriman had 18 kills and ten digs, hitting .286 in the match and added four blocks. Politte had 13 kills and eight digs, while Whetstone had 11 kills, five digs and eight blocks. Payton Graves had five kills and ten blocks, while Finder finished with 47 assists and 12 digs. Wiele finished with a match-high 17 digs.
The Lions will be back in action tomorrow taking on Southern Nazarene and Southeastern Oklahoma in the final day of the tournament. The matches will take place at Southeastern Oklahoma.
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