ST. LOUIS -- The John Brown University volleyball team turned a four-match trip to St. Louis into a productive weekend, winning three times in two days and closing the swing with back-to-back victories Saturday Aug. (28-29) inside the UHSP Gymnasium.
The trio of wins returned the Golden Eagles (4-4) back to .500 on the season, with the Blue and Gold opening conference play this upcoming weekend (Sept. 4-5).
"Our team's performance showed improvement from our opening weekend of play," head coach Ken Carver admitted. "As was the case last weekend, I really like our team's competitive fire and energy both on and off the court. Our players were loud, energetic and engaged in all of our matches, both on the court and from the sidelines. Another similarity was our first-ball contact in serve receive. Once again, our defensive specialist corps and pins gave our setters the opportunity to run more of our offensive playbook with their accurate passing.
"Three areas where we spent time this past week in practice saw marked improvement: out-of-system attacking, blocking and attacking efficiency through a reduction in the number of errors we committed. The best match of the weekend came against Friends. After dropping the first set, our team flipped the switch and played its best in all facets of the game for the remainder of the match. That match demonstrated to both our fans and ourselves how good we can be as a team when everything is clicking."
JBU opened Friday with its most dominant performance of the weekend, sweeping Rust (Miss.), 25-10, 25-9, 25-18. JBU hit .239 and overwhelmed Rust from the service line with 19 aces, one shy of tying the single-match (three sets) record. Juniors Tessa Medina and Mallory Jury delivered five aces apiece, with senior Mia Bowman adding three. Sophomore Olivia Tucker led the attack with seven kills on 16 swings, and sophomore Clara Hyke added seven kills while hitting .545. Freshman Emily Whitten finished with 13 digs as the Golden Eagles held Rust to an even (.000) hitting percentage.
Friday's second match brought the lone setback. John Brown edged William Penn (Iowa) 25-23 in the opening set but could not sustain the early momentum, falling 23-25, 25-14, 25-22, 25-19. William Penn hit .271 for the match and held JBU to .112, including just .043 in the second set and .088 in the third.
Freshman Chelsea Day provided John Brown's most efficient offensive effort, finishing with a career-high 10 kills and only one error on 18 attacks (.500). Tucker also had 10 kills, while Medina handed out 21 assists and Bowman collected 13 digs.
John Brown responded Saturday morning after dropping the first set to Friends (Kan.), 25-17. JBU flipped the match quickly, rolling through the second set 25-10 before completing the comeback with 25-18 and 25-19 victories. After hitting .128 in the opener, John Brown hit at least .229 in each of the final three sets.
Tucker paced the turnaround with 13 kills against one error, hitting .429, while sophomore Reese Montgomery gave John Brown a major presence in the middle. Montgomery finished with six kills on 14 attacks without an error and added six total blocks. Medina contributed another 26 assists and four aces as JBU hit .210 and held Friends to .087.
Just 35 minutes after the Friends match ended, John Brown returned to the floor and finished the weekend with a 25-16, 25-16, 25-18 sweep of host Health Science & Pharmacy (Mo.). JBU again leaned on service pressure, producing 11 aces, and limited UHSP to a .022 hitting percentage. Tucker had nine kills and hit .381, Montgomery added eight kills at a .312 clip and Bowman anchored the back row with 10 digs.
"I appreciated our players' flexibility and ability to focus and perform as we ran multiple lineups this weekend," Carver added after the long weekend. "I'm proud of our group and the progress they've shown through preseason training camp and our first two weekends of play. Getting to .500 after our two weekends of non-conference play was a goal of ours that our team worked hard to achieve. We've learned a lot, grown a ton and are excited to begin conference play at home this coming weekend."
Across the four matches, Tucker led John Brown with 39 kills while committing just seven errors on 93 attacks (.344), and was named to the All-Tournament team for her efforts. Medina totaled 78 assists and 13 aces, Bowman collected 47 digs and JBU produced 45 service aces in 14 sets.
The Golden Eagles will take on Oklahoma City on Friday night (Sept. 4) to open Sooner Athletic play, with the first serve slated for 6:05 p.m. The match will be carried live on the Urban Edge Network and the SAC Sports Network.
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