TOWN & COUNTRY, Mo. – The McKendree University volleyball came into Saturday's regular season finale here Saturday against Maryville University knowing a win would help solidify a spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament, but when the match was completed, Maryville kept its postseason hopes alive with a 25-19, 25-14, 25-19 victory over the Bearcats at Moloney Arena.
 
With the setback, McKendree closes the 2022 campaign with a 9-16 overall record and finishes 4-8 in the GLVC, while Maryville improved to 17-10 overall and 4-7 in the league. The nine wins this season were one better than the eight victories achieved by last year's team.
 
Maryville moved into a tie for eighth in the league standings with Drury heading into next weekend's regular season finale. Drury and Maryville, who earn own wins this season over the Bearcat, are one game ahead of McKendree in the standings as the top eight teams in terms of winning percentage qualify for the GLVC Tournament, which is scheduled for Nov. 10-12 at the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Ill.
 
In Saturday's match, the Bearcats failed to put a player in double digit kills for the second straight match as junior outside hitter Brianna Binder (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge) led the way with eight kills and added a team-high 16 digs. In addition to Binder, junior outside hitter Colleen Preusser (St. Charles, Mo./Lutheran) added six kills and had two of McKendree's four aces.
 
On the season, Binder and Preusser combined to record 554 kills, 617 digs and 65 aces. Binder finished with 313 kills, 336 digs and 27 aces, while Preusser had 241 kills, 281 digs and 38 aces.
 
Senior middle blocker Claire Diercks (Highland, Ill./Highland) had five kills, hit .231 and had three blocks in the setback. Junior middle blocker Lauren McCurley (Troy, Ill./Triad) added three blocks in the match.
 
Sophomore setter Amber Williams (Aurora, Colo./Rhodes College) had 15 assists and an ace, while sophomore setter Catie Shane (Evansville, Ind./Francis J. Reitz) had 10 assists, three digs and two block assists.
 
McKendree won ace battle (4-3), but was outblocked (9-6) and outhit (.248 to .053). The Bearcats finished with 28 kills, while Maryville had 40 kills.
 
Three Maryville players each had nine kills in the match – Grace Graham, Caroline Glastetter and Ella Brinkman. In addition to her nine kills, Brinkman added 12 digs and had four blocks, while Taylor Hansbrook recorded a match-high 18 digs and Graham hit .318.
 
Hanna Dressing had five blocks, added six kills and hit .545 in the match.
 
Set 1: Maryville jumped out to 10-5 lead in the opening set and led 13-8 when the Bearcats used a 5-3 run capped by a kills from Binder to pull within 16-13. MU, though, would respond with a 7-1 run to take a 23-14 lead, before the Bearcats used a 5-0 run keyed by two aces from Preusser and capped by back-to-back kills from Diercks and sophomore outside hitter Emma McIlhargie (Birch Run, Mich./Birch Run) to pull within 23-19, before MU used back-to-back attack errors by the Bearcats to cap the 25-19 set win.
 
In the set, MU outhit the Bearcats, .200 to -.023, but the Bearcats stayed in the set thanks to three aces and three blocks.
 
Set 2: The second set was close early on as the Bearcats held an early 5-3, before MU used a 7-3 run to take a 10-8 lead. After a kill by Binder brought the Bearcats within one at 10-9, the Saints would close the set by scoring 15 of the final 20 points to seal its 25-14 win and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
In the set, MU hit .333 with 14 kills and two aces, while the Bearcats hit -.036 with six kills, including three from Binder.
 
Set 3: MU held an early 6-4 lead in the third set, before the Bearcats used a 3-1 run capped by a Diercks kill to force a tie at 7-all. The Saints, though, would respond with a 12-3 run to push out to a 19-10 lead. The Bearcats would mount one last challenge as they used a 7-4 run capped by an assisted block from Shane and freshman middle blocker Hannah Kampwerth (Bartelso, Ill./Breese Central) to pull within 23-17. MU would cap the 25-19 win by scoring two of the final four points.
 
In the set, McK hit .186 and had 14 kills, including a combined seven kills from Preusser (4) and Binder (3). MU hit .231 with 13 kills, including five from Glastetter.