Volleyball loses final conference match

Story by Hayley Morrical, Writer

The volleyball team lost to Evangel University on Tuesday, 25-15, 25-15, 25-23, to put the women at 14-16 overall and 4-5 in conference play.

Evangel dominated at the net against the ‘Cats. The Crusaders put up 12 blocks and maintained a consistent hitting average of .216. Comparatively, the Baker women had a hitting percentage of .093, .044 and .089 in the three sets, respectively.

“We played really hard we just couldn’t put everything together at one time, but we fought really hard the whole game,” junior Natalie Minchow said. “Evangel is good. They are really consistent every year in the conference.”

No Wildcat was able to create double-digit kills. Minchow was the kill leader with eight. Junior Danielle French followed with six.

“We knew it would be a tough game to win,” Minchow said. “We played our best, and that’s all anyone could ask of us to do and hope that we get a good outcome from it.”

Baker showed strength defensively, totaling 74 digs. Senior Sarah Slater led the pack with 31 digs. Also breaking into double-digits was sophomore Hannah Bettge with 11 and senior Kylie Pease recording 10.

With only one more regular-season game, the ‘Cats hope to turn their luck around and produce a win on senior night against Newman University Thursday at 7 p.m. in Collins Center.

“We are competing against Newman, a Division II school. They are pretty good from what we know, but we are hoping we can put everything together and leave everything out on the court and play for the seniors,” Minchow said. “It is their night to shine. We want to make them and the Baker community proud.”