The John Brown University volleyball team secured its 16th consecutive win inside Bill George Arena and nabbed its third-straight overall victory with a sweep (25-14, 25-18, 25-22) over Langston (Okla.) in the Lions' first visit as a conference opponent on Saturday afternoon.
Junior Jessica Meyer posted a match-best 10 kills and added four blocks as the Golden Eagles (8-7, 7-3 Sooner Athletic) peaked over the .500 mark for the first time this season.
"We came out strong, had a good start and executed at a very high level in all facets," head coach Ken Carver said. "During the second set, our performance dipped a bit, especially offensively with too many attacking errors. The high point for the second set was our continued high level of blocking which was steady throughout the match today. Between the second and third sets, our team set a goal to limit the amount of attacking errors we made in the third and the players committed even fewer errors than their goal, which allowed us to hit very effectively."
In fact, while John Brown committed just three attacking errors in the third, the first-set attacking mark of .375 (16-4-32) was the best of the afternoon, vaulting the hosts to a .269 (43-14-108) mark overall, while limiting the Lions (4-15, 1-9) to .104 (31-20-106), including a -.088 in the second set.
"Langston showed a lot of grit, enthusiasm and hustle and made the third set really close," Carver said. "In the end, our team was able to show good poise, make the right decisions and execute when we needed to in order to close out the set and get the win."
Behind nine team blocks, junior Megan Beck and sophomore Taylor Glover each added a trio of rejections.
Freshman Jenna Lowery paced all players with 19 digs while junior Elizabeth Williams passed out 19 assists and added a pair of terminations and Beck added 14 assists to accompany her three blocks and seven kills.
A 6-1 rally late in the third pulled Langston to within two, 22-20, but a pair of Meyer kills capped off by a Williams dump over the net ended the Lions' attempt to push the match to four games.
"Our team appreciated the enthusiasm and energy our home crowd brought to the match which energized us when we were dealing with some fatigue and performance issues during the match," Carver said. "Next week's Homecoming 2018 volleyball matches are going to be some high-caliber affairs with playoff seeding implications so we will be looking forward to fans at both matches cheering us on loudly."
JBU will now rest until Thursday when the Golden Eagles continue their seven-match homestand with Southwestern Christian at 7 p.m., just 24 hours before a pivotal match with Oklahoma City on Friday night.
Sports on 10/03/2018