For the first time since the 2012 season the William Jewell Volleyball team won a third consecutive match with a 3-0 sweep of non-conference opponent Southwest Baptist by scores of 25-22, 25-21, and 25-18. The Cardinals now stand at 7-5 overall while SBU falls to 3-10. 

In the opening set, the Cardinals fell behind 8-4 before Madeline Johnson stopped the early Bearcat run. From there set one was the Paige Cunningham show as the sophomore posted ten kills on 13 attempts with no errors to lead the Cardinals to the 25-22 victory. 

In set two Jewell opened an 8-3 lead on four kills and was aided by four SBU errors to force a Bearcat timeout. After the Bearcats pulled within two at 14-12 the Cardinals scored seven consecutive points to pull away 21-13. Four Cardinal errors helped SBU crawl back in the game at 21-18 before a Cunningham kill stopped the run and a Johnson kill sealed the set 25-21. 

In the final set the Cardinals jumped out to a 6-0 lead behind three kills from Cunningham and three service aces from Stefanie Ritcherkessing to force a Southwest Baptist timeout. The Bearcat's Dana Neal scored two kills to pull SBU back into the game at 15-14 before Jewell went on a final run behind two kills from Jenna Rau to win the set 25-18. 

A very clean game on each side of the net the Cardinals posted a season-high .354 attack percentage, committing just 11 errors while the Bearcats hit .257. Jewell collected seven aces and 47 digs compared to SBU's three and 39 respectively. 

Cunningham led Jewell with a career high 20 kills, which is tied for fourth in a single game during the NCAA era, while also hitting a team high .633. Leslie Booth added seven kills while Ritcherkessing chipped in five kills, 16 digs, and four aces. Olivia Tolberd posted a game-high 17 digs. 

The Cardinals will be back in action this weekend as they host Illinois Springfield on Friday at 7:00 p.m. in the 2016 home opener, followed by a match up with McKendree on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.