BELTON, Texas - In a clash of two American Southwest Conference West Division titans, McMurry University could not hang on to a 2-0 lead, falling at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, 3-2. The War Hawks (11-6, 6-3 ASC) fell to the Crusaders (11-5, 5-2 ASC) by set scores of 25-22, 25-23, 15-25, 19-25, 4-15) at the Mayborn Campus Center.
The two teams entered the match just percentage points apart in the standings in the ASC West. The match also completed a season sweep of McMurry by the Cru.
In set one, McMurry held a 12-9 advantage before the Cru drew within a single point, 12-11. Three straight McM points stemmed the rally and made it 15-11. An assisted block by
Baylie Barnes and
Justice McGowan gave the War Hawks their largest advantage of the set, 17-13, before closing out the opening set win on a McGowan kill, 25-22.
The clubs stayed close to each other in the early going of set two, before the War Hawks separated slightly at 7-5. UMHB came back to grab a 9-8 lead and eventually extended that to 13-11. A UMHB ace gave the host team a 15-12 lead, but McMurry came back to tie things at 15-15 with
Emarie James serving and the War Hawks retook the lead, 20-19, on a kill by
Jasmine Jones. The teams see-sawed until a block by Barnes put McM up for good at 24-23, and an attack error by the Cru put set two in McM's column, giving them a 2-0 lead in sets.
With its back to the wall, UMHB came back to dominate sets three and four, knotting the match at two sets apiece. The Crus lead most of the way in both sets. In set three, the big blow came with the War Hawks still down by a manageable 17-12 score, but a 4-0 run by UMHB put any comeback hopes out of reach in the set. Set four was controlled early when UMHB opened with a 7-1 run.
In set five, the Crusaders' momentum continued. Leading by a 3-2 score and McM serving, UMHB would reel off six unanswered points to lead 8-2. Just moments later and with McM down 9-3, the Cru booked five-straight points to lead by a comfortable 14-3 margin (closing out the match two points later).
McGowan had a team-leading 14 kills and a .333 attack average. McGowan also had a match-leading 5 blocks.
Barnes and Jones had 10 and nine kills, respectively. Barnes added two blocks and
Taylor Sterling three blocks.
Madison Fatheree and James had 20 and 21 assists.
Odalis Rodriguez had 23 digs in the back row.
