The Baker volleyball team defeated Missouri Valley College in straight sets Tuesday night in Collins Center for its seventh straight victory.
The Wildcats led for the majority of the match in its 25-17, 25-12, 25-17 victory over MVC. Head coach Kathy Allen was pleased with the improvements made from BU’s first conference game against William Jewell College Sept. 8 to Tuesday’s match.
“When we played William Jewell, we kind of played down to their level, which we tend to do a lot against bad teams,” senior Christina Delladio said. “When we played Missouri Valley (Tuesday), we took the game to our level. We didn’t step down to their level.”
Sophomore Jana Boss, who was named the HAAC Setter of the Week for back-to-back weeks, and junior Brooke Allen, who was named libero of the week, have helped lead BU on its seven-game win streak.
The ‘Cats began to improve their play in the Baker Invitational Tournament Friday and Saturday.
Baker defeated McKendree College, Oklahoma City University, Sterling College and John Brown University to be the only team in the invitational with four victories.
“That was huge,” Allen said. “Historically, it’s a tough tournament. We played some good teams … and we were the only team that came out 4-0. That was a big confidence builder for us.”
After Baker and Oklahoma City split the first two sets, the team took an 8-4 lead in the third set before the power went out in Collins Center. The power outage was something that Allen was not unaccustomed to or surprised to see happen.
“The officials and I were even talking about it because it’s the same officials that have worked this tournament the whole time I have been here,” Allen said. “We were reminiscing back in the early days how this exact same thing has happened before. It’s Baldwin, it’s not our facility, it’s the power here that seems to go out fairly frequently.”
BU’s difficult non-conference schedule will continue Friday and Saturday it faces two top 25 nationally ranked teams in the MidAmerica Nazarene University Tournament in Olathe.
“It is going to be a tough weekend, but with how we have been playing this entire year so far, we are definitely hoping to come out with wins,” Boss said.
The Wildcats will play Grand View University, No. 20 Bellevue University, Hastings College and No. 24 Dordt College.
“We’re trying to break the pattern that we’ve created against ranked teams where we win the first game and then lose the next three,” Delladio said.
The ‘Cats will return home Tuesday to play Evangel University in a rematch from the second round of last year’s HAAC playoffs.
Evangel swept BU in straight sets in the playoff matchup, and the Wildcats are eager for another chance against the Crusaders.
“I think we are going to come out fired up and ready to play,” Allen said. “Evangel is a very, very good team and they had a big win (Tuesday) because they defeated Lindenwood (University) in conference, which is huge.”
Lindenwood finished regular season conference play undefeated last year, going 10-0. Lindenwood’s loss leaves MidAmerica Nazarene as the only other undefeated team in the conference besides Evangel and Baker.
“It actually could determine a conference championship,” Allen said. “It’s early, I know, but it’s a big, big game coming up here.”
