SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - McKendree University women's volleyball earned a hard-earned victory here Saturday afternoon at the O'Reilly Family Event Center on the campus of Drury University as the Bearcats opened Great Lakes Valley Conference play with a five-set victory over the Panthers (21-25, 25-22, 28-26, 18-25, 15-7).
With the win the Bearcats improve to 3-6 overall and 1-0 in the GLVC, while Drury falls to 7-3 overall and 1-1 in the league. The victory was also the second consecutive for the Bearcats as they ended the Capital City Classic last Saturday with a three-set win over Purdue-Northwest.
Saturday's match came two days after the Bearcats' GLVC opener at home was canceled with Lindenwood University due to league COVID-19 protocols put in place for the 2021-22 school year.
Against Drury, the Bearcats put three players in double figures in kills and five overall players recorded five or more kills for the match. Overall, as a team, McKendree posted a .144 hitting percentage. The 57 kills were the second highest recorded in a match this season.
Leading the way offensively for the Bearcats was sophomore outside/opposite hitter Colleen Preusser (St. Charles, Mo./Lutheran) who recorded a season-high 17 kills. Preusser was followed by senior middle blocker Hope Gramly (Prosper, Texas/Prosper), who recorded 13 kills and the other double-digit player in kills was sophomore outside hitter Brianna Binder (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge), as she finished with 12 kills.
The other players with five or more kills were junior outside hitter Maddie Misner (Makanda, Ill./Carbondale) with eight kills and junior middle blocker/opposite side hitter Claire Diercks (Highland, Ill./Highland) with five kills. Junior setter Macy Tongate (Tawanda, Ill./Normal University) recorded 44 assists in the win.
Preusser led the way with 21.5 points, followed by Gramly with 20 points, Binder added 13 points, and Misner added another 10 points.
Defensively, the Bearcats had 16 team blocks led by Gramly as she recorded 14 block assists in the win. In addition to Gramly, Tongate added 10 block assists on the match.
The Bearcats recorded their team season high in digs with 72 as they had four players reach double figures in digs. Senior transfer libero Skyler Sieber (Naples, Fla./Montevallo) tallied a team-high 16 digs, which is one off from her McKendree season-best of 17 digs against Upper Iowa on Sept. 11.
The Bearcats featured two players recording double-doubles as Preusser added 15 digs to her 17 kills, while Binder had 14 digs to go with her 12 kills. The final player recording double digit digs was Misner with 14 digs.
Drury hit .167 on the match and outdug the Bearcats, 84-72, but committed 11 service errors, while the Bearcats finished with six aces, including four from Preusser and two more from junior libero Amanda Tippett (Lake St. Louis, Mo./St. Dominic).
Four Panthers recorded double-digit kills in the loss as Taylor Forth led the way with 12 kills, while Gabriela Oliveria added 11 kills. Juliana Squire and Maddie Baumer each had 10 kills. Oliveria and Squire each tallied double-doubles for Drury as Olivera had 14 digs to go with 11 kills and Spire had 14 digs and 10 kills. Gabby Birmingham also tallied double-double as she had 36 assists and 11 digs on the day.
The Bearcats return to action this coming Friday, Sept. 24 as they travel to Romeoville, Ill., for a 7 p.m. GLVC match against nationally-ranked Lewis University.
