By David Boyce
MARYVILLE, Mo. – In Northwest Missouri State’s 25-19, 25-23, 25-20 victory over Truman State Tuesday evening at Bearcat Arena, the players showed the traits of why they earned a spot in the American Volleyball Coaches Association top 25 for the first time in school history.
The No. 22-ranked Bearcats improved to 12-0 in front of a spirited crowd of 329 fans.
“Personally, I don’t like thinking about the rankings,” said Northwest senior outside hitter Miranda Foster. “I know being 22 is an awesome step for our program, but we are hungry for more. There is more in our tank, and we know that.
“It was really important for us to get this win because people talk and hype us up and that is a good thing. But we have to keep our heads on and understand we have to take it point by point. It was important for us to focus on this match.”
The Bearcats started the match without one of their leading hitters, senior middle hitter Jackie Becker and her back-up, sophomore middle hitter Sofia Schleppenbach.
But the outstanding hitting of Foster and sophomore Maddy Bruder more than made up for the loss of two key injured players. Bruder finished with a team-high 15 kills and Foster added nine.
Sprinkling in kills were junior Alexis Williams and junior Darcy Sunderman. They gave the Bearcats more than enough firepower to beat Truman State. Sunderman had eight kills and Williams added six.
Putting the hitters in favorable positions for kills was junior setter Sarah Dannettell, who had 34 assists. And keeping the ball alive for the Bearcats was sophomore libero Olivia Nowakowski, who had 21 digs.
“We have been talking since preseason about the depth of our team,” Foster said. “I think tonight was just another test of that. Yes, Jackie is one of our key players, and Sofia is vital to our team, too. Tonight proved high vital every single one of us are. It was important for us to get this win. We did well.”
The Bearcats showed in the first set that they weren’t going to allow Truman State to pull off an upset. Tied at 10-10, Northwest scored the next three points and never faced a tie score for the rest of the first set. With a 17-15 lead, the Bearcats scored six straight points for a commanding 23-15 lead.
During the second set, the Bearcats revealed another necessary characteristic of a top 25 team. Northwest was trailing 6-4 when it scored seven straight points for an 11-6 lead. The Bearcats appeared to be rolling to an easy second set, but Truman State had other ideas.
The Bulldogs closed to 17-16 and had all the momentum. Northwest needed to make a play to halt Truman State’s run. Bruder came up with a block for a Northwest point.
Truman State kept battling even when it faced a 23-20 deficit. At 24-21, the Bulldogs twice fought off set point. On the third set point, they made a couple of nice saves, but had no answer when Bruder finished off the set with a strong kill.
“The biggest thing that was going through my head was put the ball away and finish this rally because it was definitely a big back and forth, back and forth rally,” Bruder said. “Sarah put me in a great position to split the block. Sarah found it. It was all my teammates. I just saw the hole in the block and went swinging for it. I terminated the ball, got the rally over, got the game over.”
Another key component of a top 25 team is to maintain intensity with a commanding 2-0 lead. Northwest did exactly that late in the third set as Truman State pushed the Bearcats to play at a high level.
Truman State held several leads midway through the third set, including 12-11. Northwest moved in front 16-14, but the Bulldogs fought back to tie the set at 18-18-18 and 19-19.
The point of the set came next. Dannettell made the perfect set, placing the ball just above the net for Sunderman to make a powerful kill that was impossible to dig.
“It was beautiful,” Sunderman said of the set. “I was struggling at the beginning. I decided I am going to focus on my feet and attack the ball with my feet and the rest would come through, and it worked out. Sarah gave me a good set to put the ball away and I did. I did my job.”
Momentum swung completely in Northwest’s favor for the rest of the set. The Bearcats scored five of the last six points after Sunderman’s kill to finish off the match.
“One thing we focused on was staying at our level,” Sunderman said. “After that, we really pressed forward and played at our level.”
— Northwest Athletics —
