Missouri State University
Northern Iowa
Volleyball Drops Five-Setter at UNI
October 10, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- Missouri State went to a fifth set for the ninth time this season Saturday evening at UNI, falling to the Panthers at the McLeod Center by set scores of 26-24, 19-25, 15-25, 25-20, 7-15.
The Bears (13-6, 4-2 Missouri Valley Conference) fell behind early in all five periods, and were stymied by a UNI (10-10, 4-3) defense that had two players with at least 30 digs.
Lily Johnson finished with 20 kills for the Bears, tying Amanda Omar for third in school history with her 16th career 20-kill match. Freshman Emily Butters finished with a career-high 29 digs.
Missouri State rallied from a 22-17 deficit in the first set for a 26-24 win. Simone House had two kills and Lauren Boone added a block during a 4-0 run for a 24-23 lead, and Boone and Johnson connected on back-to-back kills for the win after UNI tied the score at 24-24.
The Bears fell behind 6-1 in the second period and never evened the score despite pulling within one point on three occasions, and led only one time in the third set as UNI jumped out to an 8-3 advantage and used runs of 6-0 and 5-0 after Missouri State went ahead 11-10 to gain a 2-1 lead in the match.
Johnson came through with eight kills, two aces and one block in the fourth set, all after the Panthers bolted out to a 10-5 lead. MSU tied the score with a 5-0 run, and Johnson had three kills during an equal run for a 15-13 lead. The sophomore served consecutive aces for a 20-15 advantage and the Bears kept the margin at three points or better from there to force a fifth set.
UNI scored the first three points of the fifth set and led 10-4 after a 5-0 run as the Bears did not have enough time to make up the deficit. The Panthers fired 11 kills and hit .429 in the final period, holding MSU to four kills and a .150 hitting percentage.
The Panthers owned significant advantages in kills (73-50) and digs (111-86), while hitting .197 compared to .166 for the Bears.
Boone and House had nine kills each for MSU, while House added five blocks and Johnson (17), Kinsey Batten (12) and Elise Munroe (12) joined Butters with double-figure dig totals.
Missouri State returns home Oct. 16 for a 7 p.m. match against Loyola.
