FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 2009

Bearcats come from behind to defeat Lions in five sets

Box Score

Bolivar, Mo. -- The Missouri Southern volleyball team won both sets two and three after being dominated in the opening frame, but the Southwest Baptist Bearcats came from behind and defeated the Lions three sets to two tonight in Bolivar. Individual set scores were 10-25, 25-16, 25-19, 18-25 and 12-15.

Southern (13-20, 6-13 MIAA) and SBU (12-23, 5-13 MIAA) had nearly opposite first and second sets as the two teams hit at or below .000 in each of their respective losses.

In the third set, the Lions opened up a 17-12 lead after a kill from Daphne Merrick forced an SBU timeout. The Lions pushed that lead to 22-17 and eventually won 25-19 on a kill by Brittany Vavao-Huggins.

SBU led from start to finish in the fourth set and scored the first point of set five, before the Lions scored three points in a row to take an early 3-1 lead. The Bearcats led 8-5 at the turn, but the Lions went on a 6-1 run to lead 11-9, forcing two different SBU timeouts in the process. The second proved to be effective for the Bearcats as SBU went on a 6-1 run of its own to finish out the match.

The Lions were led offensively with ten kills each from Huggins and Jeanna Feldmann. Feldmann added 14 kills, while both Ashlee Russell and Amber Heiskell had eight kills apiece. Russell added 19 digs. Merrick had seven kills, 37 assists, five digs and five blocks, while Kari Hammerbacher and Stefanie Williams had 22 and 15 digs, respectively.

The Lions will finish off the regular season tomorrow afternoon when Southern plays host to Northwest Missouri at 5 pm in Young Gymnasium. The match will be senior day as the Lions will honor both Williams and Hammerbacher.