The Baker University volleyball team dominated its opponents this week, defeating both MidAmerica Nazarene University and Missouri Valley College in three games and sweeping conference honors as head coach Kathy Allen gained her 200th career win Tuesday.

Individually, sophomore Jayde Allen was named libero of the week, senior Jenifer Koelzer was setter of the week and sophomore Alexis Pryor earned player of the week honors from the Heart of America Athletic Conference.

Coach Kathy Allen said each of the women deserved the recognition.

“(Pryor’s) ball control is impressive, and she is becoming a dominant force at the net,” Allen said.

Junior Kelly Wilbur said the individual honors were nice but not the team’s main focus.

“It’s good recognition, and it helps people recognize our team, but I think most of those people are just focused on winning games,” Wilbur said.

The ‘Cats’ focus helped them win over MidAmerica Nazarene Tuesday with scores of 30-23, 30-18 and 30-21.

Allen said the team’s strategy was to focus on serving for the night, which resulted in solid offense.

“Our strategy was to focus on one thing at a time,” Allen said. “(Tuesday) we focused on serving and we had a lot of service aces.”

Among those serving aces were eight recorded by Allen. Wilbur said it was beneficial to have one area to focus on in each game.

“I think with every team you play, there’s something you can focus on that will get you more points than against other teams,” she said. “They were struggling with serves, so we knew if we could get our serve in-court, they probably wouldn’t be able to do anything with it.”

Senior Vanessa Wardy said focusing on serving helped the ‘Cats keep from playing down to their opponent’s level.

“I definitely think that’s one of our biggest things this year,” she said. “When we have struggled, it has been against teams that aren’t as good. I think it’s good to realize the things we need to focus on to win.”

The ‘Cats were also solid at the net, with senior Carly Chadick, Pryor and Wardy all recording 10 kills for the night.

Allen said she was not surprised by the offensive stats.

“Kills, I would say, is the strongest part of our game,” Allen said. “We have a lot of offensive weapons. Both of our middles are effective, and Alexis is just dominant.”

Wardy said offense was a strong area for the team.

“It’s something I think we’ve had a natural gift for on the team,” she said. “We don’t really work on it in practice …we focus more on defense.

A strong offense also propelled the ‘Cats past Missouri Valley on Saturday, 30-25, 30-18 and 30-21. Pryor and Wilbur both recorded more than 10 kills, and freshman Michaela Marak managed 10 kills in 15 attempts.

Wilbur said she thinks the team is finding its rhythm heading into conference play.

“We’ve been up and down this season, but we’re starting to come together,” she said.

Wilbur said the team looks to continue competing well in upcoming conference match ups.