The Central Methodist University volleyball team held a 2-1 advantage over Baker, but the Wildcats were able to win games four and five to earn a hard-fought victory over the Lady Eagles Tuesday night. CMU fell to Baker 11-25, 25-22, 25-21, 13-25, 6-15 in a Heart of America Athletic Conference match.
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Central Methodist fell behind early in game one, but got to within 5-6 before Baker scored six straight points to take control. The Wildcats stretched their lead to 8-22 before winning 11-25 in the first game.
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In the second game, the two teams started off evenly, with the score tied at 1, 6, and 8, before CMU got an ace serve by freshman Laura Queen (Rogersville, Mo.), a Baker error and a kill by freshman Makenzie Shepard (Leavenworth, Kan.) to take an 11-8 lead. The Lady Eagles stretched their lead to 13-9 on a kill by Morgyn Bergschneider (Archie, Mo.), and maintained the lead until Baker rallied to tie the game again at 17, and 18. Junior Taylor Reed (Toledo, Ohio) and senior Erica LaBoube (Berger, Mo.) teamed up for a block to make it 19-18 in favor of CMU. LaBoube followed with an ace serve to give the Lady Eagles a two-point advantage. Baker scored the next three points to regain the lead at 21-20, but CMU tied again at 21-21 after a Wildcat error. A kill by Nikki Torno (St. Louis, Mo.) gave CMU a 22-21 lead, but Baker answered with a kill to tie again at 22 before CMU scored three straight points to win the game 25-22.
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Game three was similar to the second game, as the two teams were tied 14 times, with the 14th tie coming at 17-17. CMU scored five of the next six points on kills by LaBoube and Torno, a block by Torno and Reed, and a pair of Baker errors, to take a 22-18 lead. After a timeout, Baker scored three points to cut the CMU lead to 22-21, but kills by Shepard and Bergschneider, along with an error by Baker gave CMU the game-three win at 25-21.
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The Lady Eagles hurt themselves in game four, as Baker capitalized on several CMU errors to jump out to a 12-1 lead. The Wildcats stretched their lead to 6-20 before CMU went on a 6-0 run to get back to within 12-20. That six-point run included a pair of kills by Bergschneider, a kill by Torno, a block by Bergschneider and LaBoube, and an ace serve by junior Melanie Touchette (Millstadt, Ill.). Baker stopped the run and scored five of the last six points to pick up the 25-13 win to even the match at two games each.
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In the decisive fifth set, the two teams were tied at 3-3 before Baker went on a 6-1 run to take a 9-4 lead. Baker's offense was on fire in the fifth game, recording 10 kills, as the Wildcats earned a 15-6 win in the game five to win the match 3-2.
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LaBoube led the Lady Eagles with 12 kills, four blocks and three ace serves. Reed finished with six kills and five blocks. Sophomore Sarah Lewey (Kansas City, Mo.) tallied a season-high 27 assists in the match for CMU, while Touchette finished with a season-high 18 digs.
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The Lady Eagles dropped to 4-11 on the season and 0-6 in the HAAC, while Baker improved to 15-10 overall and 5-2 in conference play. CMU will return to action this weekend at the Hannibal-LaGrange College Tournament Friday and Saturday. The Lady Eagles are scheduled to play Benedictine University at Springfield and Viterbo University on Friday, before facing William Penn University and Mount Mercy College on Saturday.