Columbia, Mo. - The No. 19 Central Methodist Volleyball team earned a pair of wins on the final day of the Columbia College Tournament in Columbia, Mo.
The Eagles began day two with a victory in straight-sets over No. 13 Dakota Wesleyan (25-19, 25-17, 25-15), before gutting out a come-from-behind five-set victory over (RV) Xavier (22-25, 22-25, 25-14, 25-18, 16-14).
Against the Tigers, Central improved its offensive attack with each set, hitting .293 in the first, .343 in the second, and .385 in the third. CMU held DWU to just a .149 attack percentage for the match, including .071 in the third and final frame.
Senior Callie Henson led the CMU offense with 11 kills on 17 swings for a .647 attack percentage. The native of Jefferson City also added six digs and picked up a block in the victory.
Sydney Healy and Delaney Miller nearly reached double-digit kills with nine each. Junior transfer Alyssa Smith added three kills, a team leading three service aces, and 15 digs. Krystal Brauner matched Smith with 15 digs paired with eight assists.
Gabi Owczarek dished out 20 asissts followed by Ryleigh McBurney with 12.
Central fell behind early against the Golden Nuggets in the final game of the day, dropping the first two sets by identical scores of 25-22. Needing to win the next two sets to force a fifth, CMU responded by rolling in the third set 25-14. The Eagles finished set three hitting an even .400 while holding Xavier to .097.
Central's defense carried them in the fourth, as they held XU to a negative hitting percentage to earn a 25-18 win.
Xavier got the jump start in the winner-take-all fifth set, taking a 7-4 lead over Central. Miller would record back-to-back kills for the Eagles to pull Central within one. The score remained tight until Central found the upper hand on a kill from McBurney to tie the game at 12-12.
Both sides exchanged points as the score remained even at 14-14. The next two points went in favor of Central, as a service errors by Xavier and a service ace from Maassen sealed the comeback victory for CMU.
Miller had one of the best games of her career, recording a career-high 19 kills on 30 swings for a .533 hitting percentage. Henson followed with 17 kills in addition to chipping in on seven blocks.
Maassen added 10 kills and tallied six block assists.
Owczarek dished out 31 assists along with 10 digs to earn her second double-double of the year. She also recorded two service aces. McBurney recorded 17 assists in addition to five digs and a service ace.
The duo of Brauner and Smith recorded 14 and 13 digs respectively, followed by Morgan LeBlanc with nine.
CMU will continue tournament play with a trip to Bellevue, Nebraska to compete in the GoSarpy.com Labor Day Classic Sept. 1-2.
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