LIBERTY, Mo. – The McKendree University women's volleyball rebounded from a disappointing five-set loss on Friday at Truman State here Saturday afternoon by posting a four-set victory over William Jewell (26-24, 22-25, 25-18, 25-15) in Great Lakes Valley Conference action at the Mabee Center.
 
With Saturday's win, the Bearcats improve to 7-9 overall and 3-3 in the GLVC, while William Jewell falls to 8-11 overall and 1-5 in the GLVC. The Bearcats are currently sitting in eighth place in the GLVC standings as the halfway point of league play.
 
Saturday's win was keyed by a McKendree offense that had five players record 10 or more kills, including a match-high 18 kills from junior outside hitter Brianna Binder (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge). In addition to Binder, freshman outside hitter Lauren Harris (Woodlawn, Ill./Woodlawn) added 14 kills and hit .583, while junior outside hitter Colleen Preusser (St. Charles, Mo./Lutheran) and junior middle blocker Lauren McCurley (Troy, Ill./Triad) each had 12 kills and senior middle blocker Claire Diercks (Highland, Ill./Highland) had 11 kills and .348.
 
Along with having five players record double-digit kills, the Bearcats also hit a season high .348 in the match including hitting a combined .417 over the final two sets. The .348 attack percentage bettered the old season-best mark of .310 against Minnesota-Crookston.
 
Sophomore setter Amber Williams (Aurora, Colo./Rhodes College) was just two assists shy of her career high as she recorded 58 in the match.
 
Along with her 18 kills, Binder added 13 digs for her 11th double-double of the season, while Preusser added her eighth double-double as she had 14 digs to go with her 12 kills.
 
Freshman libero Ashlyn Berczynski (Minooka, Ill./Minooka) led the way defensively for McKendree with 16 digs and added three of her team's eight aces.
 
In addition to her career-high tying 12 kills, McCurley hit .409 and had eight blocks and McKendree held an 8.5-6.0 edge in blocks on the day.
 
Jewell was paced offensively by 14 kills, 11 digs and three blocks from Bella LaPorta, while Katy Garrison had nine kills and Haidan Baade tallied a match-high 18 digs for the Cardinals.
 
While McKendree hit a season-best .335, Jewell finished the match hitting .221.
 
Set 1
The Bearcats jumped out to a 6-3 lead early in the set and led 8-6 when Jewell used an 8-2 run to take a 14-10 lead. The lead grew to as much as 21-15 following a kill by Garrison, before the Bearcats responded with an 8-2 run capped by kill from Binder to tie the set at 23. WJC, though, got a kill from LaPorta to take a 24-23 lead, but kills from Binder and Preusser gave the Bearcats a 25-24 lead and McK capped the 26-24 set win on an attack error by LaPorta.
 
In the set, McK hit .289 with 18 kills, including seven from Binder, while Jewell hit .209 in the set. Both teams had two aces in the set.
 
Set 2
In the second set, Jewell hit .476 as LaPorta and Garrison combined for seven kills and they held the Bearcats to a .212 attack percentage with McCurley and Harris each having four kills each.
 
McKendree jumped out to a 7-3 lead early in the set, before Jewell used a 5-2 run to pull within 9-8. The Bearcats would extend its lead to 14-11 following a kill by Harris, before Jewell responded with a 9-4 run to take a 20-18 lead. Kills from Preusser and McCurley brought McK within 21-20, but WJC would close the set by scoring four of the final six points to earn a 25-22 win to even the match at a set apiece.
 
Set 3
The third set featured seven ties and three lead changes. In the set, McK hit .459 with 20 kills, including six from Binder, while WJC hit .265 with five kills from LaPorta.
 
Jewell jumped out to an early lead in the set and led 8-7 when the Bearcats used a 9-3 run to take an 16-11 lead. The run was capped by back-to-back kills from Preusser. WJC would score six of the next 11 points to pull within 21-17, but McK would close the set by scoring four of the final five points to cap the 25-18 win to take a 2-1 lead in the match. The set was capped by an ace from Binder.
 
Set 4
The fourth set belonged to the Bearcats as they hit .375 with 17 kills, including four kills each from Binder and Diercks to cruise to a 25-15 win. Jewell hit .030 in the set as they had nine kills and eight attack errors.
 
In the set, McK scored the first three points and led 8-3 when WJC used a 4-2 run to pull within 10-7. That would be as close as the Cardinals would get as the Bearcats scored four straight points and 10 of the next 12 points overall to take a 20-9 lead. Two straight points by WJC cut McK's lead to 20-11, before the Bearcats capped the set by scoring five of the final nine points, including kills from Diercks and McCurly to cap the victory.
 
Up Next
The Bearcats will return home to the Melvin Price Convocation Center next weekend (Oct. 7-8) as they host home GLVC matches against Rockhurst on Oct. 7 at 6 p.m. and Southwest Baptist on Oct. 8 at 3 p.m.