Despite a furious comeback from two sets down, the William Jewell volleyball team fell to Drury University Friday evening by scores of 19-25, 23-25, 25-19, 25-22, 12-15. The loss is the Cardinals fourth in row and drops their overall record to 9-9 and 3-5 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
The Cardinals struggled in the opening set as Drury jumped out to a 20-10 lead before Jewell made a run to pull within 22-18 before three Panther kills closed the set 25-19.
Jewell controlled majority of the second set but faltered late to go into the break trailing 2-0. With the Cardinals leading 21-19, Drury went on a 6-2 run to earn the set win 25-23.
Jewell came out in the third set and opened an 8-4 advantage only to see the Panthers crawl back in the game. Three kills from
Mary Booton helped the Cards open an 18-14 lead from which they never looked back and took the set 25-19.
Set four saw the two teams battle back and forth for majority of the set. With the score knotted at 16 the Cards went on a 5-1 run highlighted by an
Olivia Tolberd ace to open a 21-17 advantage. A kill from
Madeline Johnson followed by an ace from
Kennedy Ruckh gave Jewell a 23-22 lead before two Drury errors aided Jewell for the 25-22 win.
Set five appeared to be all Jewell early as the Cardinals opened up a 6-2 lead, on kills from Booton and
Paige Cunningham before the Panthers came storming back. A 9-4 Drury run put Jewell in a 13-11 hole and forced a timeout by
Carolyn Raynes. A kill from
Stefanie Richterkessing pulled Jewell within one but an error and kill Panther kill ended the match 15-12.
As a team the Cardinals hit just .126 on the night but held Drury to a .146 clip. Jewell was led by Booton who posted a career-high 14 kills on on 38 attempts. Johnson followed with ten kills and five blocks.
Tolberd led the defense with 24 digs while Richterkessing collected 18 and Ruckh 11. Cunningham totaled five blocks with
Alix Weigel and
Amy Lindhorst posting a balanced attack with 23 and 19 assists respectively.
The Cardinals travel to Missouri S&T tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 p.m. in Rolla, Mo.
