[Women's Volleyball] Mustangs Win Five-Set Thriller Over Statesmen

Oskaloosa, Iowa - As of this past weekend, the Mustangs have faced every opponent in the Heart of America Conference thus far this season. After the first go-round, the Mustangs held a 4-8 record in conference play. The Mustangs will now go on to play the schools within the north division one more time before a champion is crowned. Tonight, the Mustangs traveled to battle the Statesmen of William Penn University. In this season's first matchup, the Mustangs fell 1-3. Looking for revenge, the Mustangs showed up to come out on top of a five-set thriller 3-2 (25-22, 21-25, 26-28, 25-17, 15-7). This win pushes them to 16-10 on the season and 5-8 in conference.

In set one, the Mustangs jumped out to an early lead by as much as four. The Statesmen would battle back to knot the score at 11-11. From there the Statesmen would take a three point lead late into the set forcing a Mount Mercy timeout. Out of the timeout, the Mustangs collected themselves rattling off four straight points off of Alyssa Weldon (JR/Oxford, Iowa) serves to end set one 25-22..

Back and forth to start set two, the Statesmen would go on a 5-0 run. The Mustangs would eventually recover as they would chip away at the lead before taking a lead of their own. Kayla Daggett (SO/Madison, Wis.) caught the defense off guard as she delivered a dagger to push the score to 18-16. The lead would not last for long as the Statesmen would score six straight points to collect the second set and square the match up at one a piece.

In set three, the Mustangs would trail until a service ace by Daggett tied the set at 6-6. The set would have 12 total ties and the teams would remain within two points of each other. After another ace, this time by Lauren Stopko (SR/Tiffin, Iowa), the Mustangs took the lead 21-20. However, the Mustangs could not find enough momentum to carry them throughout the end of the third set. With the score teetering in an extended set, the score would favor the Statesmen as the Mustangs committed three straight attack errors dropping the third set 26-28.

Finding themselves down 1-2, the Mustangs were not ready to be sent packing just yet. Leading for a majority of the set, the Mustangs were determined to force a fifth and final set. After seeing a tie at 8-8, the Mustangs would not look back as they would go on multiple 3-0 runs to win by a score of 25-17.

Picking up right where they left of in set four, the Mustangs never lost the lead in the fifth set taking care of the Statesmen 15-7. Becca Thomson (SR/Rock Island, Ill.) would serve home four straight points ending with consecutive successful swings by tonight's standouts, Weldon and Maddie Bell (SO/Ely, Iowa). These two combined would total eight of the 10 kills in the fifth set.

In the five-set thriller, the Mount Mercy Mustangs would total 70 kills, 67 assists, 111 digs, and four blocks. Weldon led the team with an impressive 25 kills and Bell followed close behind with 21 of her own. Thomson would also add 14. Kayla Daggett recorded 56 assists. It was a joint effort on the defensive end tonight with Stopko tallying 25 digs, Thomson 23, Weldon 19, Sam Whalen (SR/Peru, Ill.) 18, and Daggett 15. Leading blocker was Olivia Makinen (FR/Beloit, Wis.) with four block assists.

Up next, the Mustangs will have an away weekend of volleyball traveling to Nebraska and Southern Iowa to continue Heart of America Conference play. The Mustangs return home on Tuesday, Oct. 23 to host a nonconference match against Briar Cliff University at 6:00 P.M. in the Hennessey Rec Center.