OKLAHOMA CITY -- Senior Megan Beck contributed a season-high 13 kills and the John Brown University volleyball team stormed back to take a 1-0 lead, but second-seeded Texas Wesleyan ended the Golden Eagles season in four sets (24-26, 25-17, 25-18, 25-23) in the Sooner Athletic Conference tournament semifinals inside Abe Lemons Arena on Friday afternoon.
The Rams land the league's second autobid to the NAIA National Championships via advancing to the finals to face regular season champion, Oklahoma City, on Saturday afternoon. The Stars earned the SAC's first autobid by capturing the 2019 regular season title.
Taylor Glover added 12 kills and a pair of blocks, while Jessica Schultz finished with eight kills and a trio of rejections. John Brown (26-8) hit .117 (52-29-196) on the match.
Freshman Jillian Blackman dug up 19 Wesleyan attempts to lead three Golden Eagles in double-digit scoops territory. Senior Carly McKinney added 17 while freshman Morgan Fincham added 10.
Sophomore Carrie Ciesla and Fincham split setting duties to the tune of 19 and 15 assists, respectively.
Five Golden Eagle careers came to and end as seniors Jessica Schultz, Lindsey Clark, Megan Beck, Kinzee Mayo and Carly McKinney each played their last match in the Blue and Gold.
John Brown 3, Wayland Baptist 0
The John Brown University volleyball team advanced to the Sooner Athletic tournament semifinals for the fourth time in five years after the Golden Eagles pieced together a .324 attack to sweep past Wayland Baptist (Texas) 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-14) for the third time this season on Tuesday evening inside Bill George Arena.
Senior Kinzee Mayo smacked a career-high 12 terminations and hit .440 (12-1-25), while senior Carly McKinney added eight kills and a match-best 18 digs, setting up the Golden Eagles with a rubber match versus second-seeded Texas Wesleyan on Friday afternoon (Nov. 15) at 3 p.m.
The tandem of sophomore Carrie Ciesla (20) and freshman Morgan Fincham (11) accounted for 31 of JBU's 43 assists on 45 terminations, keeping the Golden Eagle hitters in rhythm all match long. John Brown hit .279 in the first set and improved to .300 in the second before topping out at .406 in the final frame.
The back row also pitched in with nearly 20 digs per set, and kept the Pioneers without an attacker in double-digit kill territory. The visitors managed just a .058 clip (21-15-104), marking the seventh consecutive match in which John Brown kept the opponent under .100 on the match. Ciesla grabbed her fourth double-double of the season with 10 scoops.
Sports on 11/17/2019