SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. -- Freshman Kate Carlson smacked a team-high 15 kills and freshman Paige Addington added a career-high 25 digs to power the John Brown University volleyball team to a four-set victory (25-19, 25-19, 22-25, 25-23) over Oklahoma City on Friday night (Oct. 3) inside Bill George Arena.
Carlson flirted with a double-double, recoding nine digs and service up a pair of aces to accompany her 15 kills on 33 swings (.303). Freshman Reese Montgomery finished an extremely efficient evening in the middle, putting down 10 kills on 18 attempts (.444), pacing the Golden Eagles (7-11, 3-7 Sooner Athletic) to a .214 (49-19-140) attack efficiency. Junior Akayla Kador also added seven kills, two solo rejections and attacked at a .385 mark.
With the win, JBU ended a six-match losing skid and improved to 6-4 in last 10 matchups with the Stars (7-9, 4-6).
"Tonight's win against Oklahoma City was long in coming, but showed some important growth by our team," head coach Ken Carver explained. "To our players' credit, while none of us enjoyed losing those matches, they've kept working to improve and have maintained the right attitude and focus. I was happy to see them put everything together this evening and earn a quality win that gives us momentum heading into the second round of conference play next week.
"This is the second match in a row that our offense has produced at the level we aim for. A lot of that is attributed to cutting down on attacking errors and both setters making really good decisions. I was really proud of Tessa and Federica for adjusting their block against City's outside hitters – they touched a lot more attacks, which made it easier for our back row to convert in transition. Kate had another great night leading our team in kills, and it was good to see Reese get back into her offensive rhythm. Paige set her season-best dig performance with her fourth 20-plus dig match in the last six matches. We'll look to close out Homecoming weekend with another win tomorrow against Southwestern Christian."
The hosts never trailed through the first two sets as John Brown hit .379 (13-2-29) in the first and .172 (11-6-29) in the second set. OCU struggled to find its offensive footing, especially in the second, with the visitors hitting a mere -.028 (8-9-36), allowing the Blue and Gold to capture mirror 25-19 wins in the opening periods.
The third set featured a different, however, as the teams combined for 13 ties and six lead changes. The sides were knotted at 21 apiece late, but a pair of JBU attack errors and kills from Grace Smallwood and Marina Kalajdzic cut the Golden Eagle advantage in half heading into the fourth set.
Carlson led the John Brown response with five of her 15 kills in the fourth set, while the back row finished the set 18-of-19 (.947). The hosts jumped out to a quick 7-2 lead after consecutive Carlson kills, but City responded to pull within three, 11-8, midway through the set. Three consecutive Stars errors returned the JBU lead to six, 14-8, but back-to-back Carlson aces followed by a kill from freshman Clara Hyke ballooned the margin to eight, 20-12.
The Stars' final gasp included an 11-4 run the pulled the visitors all the way back to within one, 24-23, but Carlson's 15th termination of the night ended the visitors' hopes of playing a fifth set.
Burton finished the night with 24 assists, three aces and six digs, while freshman Taylor Kosmicki added 21 helpers and seven digs in the win.
Kayle Marshall led all players with 19 kills (.255) and finished the double-double with 13 digs. Smallwood's efforts concluded in 11 terminations and 17 digs, another City double-double. Natalie Adams assisted 40 OCU kills, but the visitors finished the night hitting .145 (49-26-159), ending its four-match winning streak.
John Brown concludes its five-match homestand with a high-noon date with winless Southwestern Christian (Okla.), live on the SAC Sports Network and the Urban Edge Network. First serve is scheduled for 12:05 p.m.
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