WICHITA – Kansas Wesleyan Women's Volleyball closed out the regular season with a sweep of the Friends Falcons 25-21, 25-17, 25-21 on Saturday at the Garvey Center.
The win gives the Coyotes a berth into the KCAC Tournament as the No. 8 seed and a meeting with No. 10 ranked and KCAC No. 1 seed McPherson on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in McPherson in the quarterfinals.
KWU had to bounce back from a 7-5 deficit in the first set, scoring three straight points to take an 8-7 lead. Friends tied it and then used a 6-1 run to take a 13-9 lead. The Coyotes trailed 16-11 when things turned in favor of KWU. KWU scored five straight points to tie the set at 16 and would push the run out to 11-2 to take a 21-18 lead. Friends got within two at 23-21 before the Coyotes scored the final two to win the set.
The Coyotes raced out to an 8-1 lead in the second set and never let Friends get closer than four the rest of the way. KWU led 12-8 when the Coyotes scored three straight to lead 15-8. Friends responded with three of its own but a 4-0 KWU run followed making it 19-11. It was 21-17 when the Coyotes scored the last four on a kill by
Avery Conner, an ace by
Harley Ludacka and back-to-back
Campbell Bohling kills.
Wesleyan had to rally in the third set. The Coyotes trailed 12-7 but used an 8-2 run to take a 15-14 lead. It was tied at 16 when the Coyotes scored twice on Bohling kills. Friends answered back to tie it at 18. A 5-1 KWU run made it 23-19 Coyotes.
Ryan Pennington's kill finished the match.
Bohling had 14 kills to lead the Coyotes while Pennington had 10, hitting .667 for the match. KWU hit .214 as a team. Ludacka had 17 assists and
Giovanna Ishii had 18.
Tristyn Hedman had 22 digs. Solo blocks were the statistic of the day, as Conner,
Ivi Marcolino and Pennington had two solos each.
