The Missouri State volleyball team fought back from deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 to stun Wichita State 3-2 Friday night inside Charles Koch Arena in Wichita. Final scores of the match in favor of Missouri State were 23-30, 30-24, 24-30, 32-30 and 15-13.
Missouri State improves to 11-3 overall and into a tie with WSU for the league lead with a 4-1 MVC record. The Shockers drop to 12-3 and 4-1 in the Valley.
For the third time already this season, the Bears went into a game five on the road, and for the third time the Bears came out victorious. The fifth game was a back-and-forth contest throughout, with neither team holding more than a one-point lead until Missouri State pulled ahead 9-6 following a WSU attack error and an ace from Erin O’Connor. The Shockers rallied to take a 13-12 lead before a pair of kills from O’Connor sandwiched around a ball-handling error by WSU’s Katie Niggemeyer gave MSU the 15-13 game five win.
The Bears had to fight off two match points in game four just to force the match into a game five. Missouri State trailed 29-28 and 30-29 before earning the final three points of the fourth game to send the match into the fifth game. O’Connor came up big with two big kills again, tying the game at 30-30 putting it away at 32-30.
A number of Bears put up stellar numbers in the victory. O’Connor led the way with 23 kills on .360 hitting and a career-high 21 digs. With her second 20-20 match of the season, O’Connor became the first MSU player since 1997 to post more than one 20-kill, 20-dig match in a season.
Adeana McAfee set a new school record with her 37 digs, moving up to ninth-place on MSU’s all-time digs list in the process.
Katelyn Panzau (17) and Jamie Adams (10) also turned in new career-highs in digs, while Adams also set a new personal best with 17 kills. Shanda Harper tied her career-best with 14 kills. Panzau added 60 assists, and Sarah Lansing had a team-high six blocks.
The match was as statistically even as a college volleyball match can be. The Bears edged the Shockers in total kills (76-72), attack percentage (.194-.193), digs (112-105) and assists (70-66). Each team posted 11 blocks. MSU’s total of 112 digs is highest since digging 122 balls against Bradley in 2002.
The Bears step out of conference for a Tuesday match at Oral Roberts at 7 p.m. before playing MVC foes Southern Illinois at 7 p.m. Friday and Evansville at 7 p.m. Saturday on the road.
