JBU volleyball snaps losing skid

n The Golden Eagles moved to 6-6 in the Sooner Athletic Conference.

Photo courtesy of JBU Sports Information John Brown University junior Beth Brankle, a former Siloam Springs standout, dives for a ball Wednesday against Wayland Baptist at Bill George Arena.
Photo courtesy of JBU Sports Information John Brown University junior Beth Brankle, a former Siloam Springs standout, dives for a ball Wednesday against Wayland Baptist at Bill George Arena.

Senior Molli Pugh and freshman Carly McKinney each notched a double-double and the John Brown University volleyball team broke a four-match losing streak by taking out Southwestern Christian (Okla.) 3-1 (22-25, 25-17, 25-18, 25-23) on Thursday inside Bill George Arena.

Pugh and McKinney both totaled 15 kills and 17 digs leading a John Brown (15-10, 6-6 SAC) offense that hit .261 percent. Junior Beth Brankle scooped a match-best 20 digs and junior Alyssa Arnold threw around 30 assists in the victory over SCU (13-10, 3-9 SAC).

"It was good to finally break through and get back into the win column tonight," said head coach Ken Carver. "As a team we've had to battle a bit of adversity due to injuries and illness where we've had to play multiple line-ups during the course of the past two weeks. Most teams have to deal with this at some point and time in the season and our time happened to be right in the middle of our conference schedule.

"In the midst of this, while we haven't had the success we would have liked our players have kept working hard. Southwestern Christian is very similar to us in that they saw a lot of success early on and now have struggled to finish and win games so we knew we had a battle on our hands tonight. Our defensive effort after the first set ignited our team's offensive output in the second and third sets."

Freshman Jessica Meyer added nine kills and hit a team-best .412 percent, adding two solo blocks and assisting on two more. Also posting two solo and two assists was sophomore Kennedy Shelstead, which helped power the Golden Eagles to 12 team blocks.

After falling in the first set, JBU rebounded to hit .304 percent and limited the visitors to just .169 percent.

Shaeli Monroe notched 15 kills and hit .419 percent while Heather Pruitt added 10 terminations. Courtney Traylor passed out 49 assists in the Eagles' third-consecutive loss.

JBU will return to action on Friday in Fort Worth, Texas, to take on Texas Wesleyan at 7 p.m.

Wayland Baptist 3, JBU 2

Up 22-20 with a 2-0 lead, the John Brown University volleyball team allowed Wayland Baptist to finish the third set on a 5-1 rally and the Pioneers finished with consecutive set wins to capture a 3-2 (23-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-20, 15-12) win on Wednesday evening inside Bill George Arena.

Freshman Carly McKinney and senior Molli Pugh each tallied a double-double, and freshman Jessica Meyer chimed in with eight kills and eight blocks, but the relentless Pioneers (17-8, 10-1 SAC) hit .253 percent over the final three sets and overcame substantial deficits in the final two stanzas to send JBU to its fourth-consecutive loss.

Pugh posted 15 kills and 13 digs, while McKinney added 12 terminations and 20 digs to accompany four service aces. Sophomore Kennedy Shelstead chipped in with 10 kills and four blocks in the loss.

The Golden Eagles hit .207 percent through the first two sets, but more importantly limited Baptist to just .039 percent. On the match, JBU out-hit the Pioneers, .167 percent to .155 percent.

The turning point occurred in the third set when JBU had a healthy 16-11 lead, but Wayland stormed back on a 9-0 run to take a 20-16 advantage. The Golden Eagles would pull to within three, 23-20, but a JBU error followed by a WBU ace tied the match at two apiece.

Back-to-back terminations from Meyer and freshman Megan Beck was followed by a McKinney ace to build a 4-1 John Brown lead in the fifth. The Pioneers responded with a 4-1 run of its own, notching a 5-all draw. After the lead shifted twice, consecutive Baptist miscues again tied the match at 10.

Wayland captured three straight, but with a 13-10 score, JBU retaliated with a pair of kills from Beck and Meyer. With the match on the line, the Pioneers closed out the comeback with back-to-back terminations to complete the match.

Sports on 10/16/2016