Bruins win two five-setters, run streak to nine

Evangel Box Score
Grand View Box Score

OLATHE, Kan. -- The 16th-ranked Bellevue University volleyball team survived a pair of five-set matches in the final day of the MidAmerica Nazarene Invitational Saturday afternoon at the Bell Family Arena. The Bruins defeated Evangel 3-2 (25-17, 25-16, 26-28, 16-25, 15-8) in the opener and finished the tournament with a 3-2 (19-25, 25-19, 27-25, 22-25, 15-6) victory over No. 24-ranked Grand View University. 

The Bruins have now won nine-straight matches, improving to 13-4 on the season. 

Bellevue returns to action next when they host the Bruin/Premier Volleyball Classic on Sept. 23-24 at the Gordon Lozier Athletic Center.

Bellevue 3, Evangel 2
The Bruins squandered two match points in the third set, before rebounding with a decisive victory in the fifth set, scoring a 25-17, 25-16, 26-28, 16-25, 15-8 win over Evangel University in the first match of the day. 

Maureen Wardian led the Bruins with 16 kills on .469 hitting. Annie Benson and Kali Schnacker added 14 kills apiece. Jordan Broady collected her seventh double-double of the season with 48 assists and 11 digs. Sydney DeBoer hit .500 with seven kills on 12 swings with just one error. Meghan Evans led the BU defense with 23 digs 

Paced by Benson's four kills, the Bruins hit .333 in the opener, while holding Evangel to a .081 hitting clip as BU cruised to the 25-17 win. Bellevue closed the game on a 7-2 scoring run highlighted by a pair of kills from DeBoer. 
Four Crusader errors and a pair of kills by Wardian helped BU race out to a 9-1 lead in the second frame. The Bruins built an 11-point advantage at 18-7 following two-straight kills from Bell and another from Wardian. Evangel scored four-straight to pull to within seven points, but that was as close as the Crusaders would get as BU took the second frame, 25-16, capped by a kill from DeBoer.

Benson connected on five kills and Wardian added four to lead the BU attack in the second set.

After trailing the majority of the third set, the Crusaders used an 8-1 scoring run to take a 21-18 lead, forcing a BU timeout.  The Bruins responded with a 4-1 run to knot the score at 23 apiece. After saving two match points, Evangel took the third set, 28-26, following an attack error by Bell and a kill by Kaley Lyons. 

The fourth set was all Crusaders as Evangel hit .472 in breezing to the 25-16 win, forcing a decisive fifth set. 

Two kills from Wardian and an ace by Ashley Wurdeman helped BU take an early 3-0 lead in the final set. The Bruins expanded the lead to 8-2 following a pair of kills from Bell and kills by Schnacker and Wardian. A kill by Benson and an ace from Broady gave BU a 12-5 advantage. The Bruins ended the match on a kill by Bell giving the Bruins the 15-8 win.

Bellevue 3, Grand View 2
Wardian tallied a career-high 22 kills on a sizzling .500 hitting clip to lead four Bruins in double figures as the balanced BU offense defeated No. 24 Grand View 19-25, 25-19, 27-25, 22-25, 15-6. Benson and Bell added 14 kills apiece and Schacker put down 10 kills. 

Broady registered her eighth double-double with 57 assists and 17 digs while directing the BU offense to a .218 hitting percentage. 

Evans anchored the BU defense with a match-high 23 digs as five Bruins recorded double-figure dig totals. Niki Gregory, Mollie Gavin, and Ashley Wurdeman joined Evans and Broady in double figures with 14 digs each. 
Devon Jensen had 21 kills and 18 digs to the lead Grand View. 

Grand View hit .341 in the opener and led by as many as nine before taking the set 25-19. Wardian and Schnacker had three kills apiece to lead the Bruins.

The BU offense got on track in the second, securing a 12-4 lead after going on a 6-1 run capped by a service ace from Caitlyn Rueth. The Bruins scored five-straight points to take an 11-point advantage at 17-6, highlighted by consecutive kills from Benson and DeBoer.

The Vikings got as close as five points but three kills by Wardian down the stretch helped BU even the match with the 25-19 second-set win. The Bruins hit .400 in the second, including seven kills from Wardian.

Neither team was able to gain control in the early stages of the third game until the Vikings used a four-point run to gain a 14-10 advantage. The Bruins erased the four-point deficit with a seven-point run, highlighted by two kills from Wardian and back-to-back blocks by Bell and Wardian, to take a 20-17 lead.  Three-straight points by the Viking tied the game again until another kill from Wardian stopped the GVU run. The two squads traded points until kills by Bell and Wardian gave BU the set, 27-25. Wardian netted five kills to lead BU in the third. 

The fourth set was tight throughout with neither team gaining more than a three-point advantage. With the score tied at 21-all, GVU finished the game on a 4-1 run after two Bruin attack errors, a service ace, and a kill by Jensen forced a decisive fifth set. 

Three-consecutive kills from Benson and an ace from Rueth fueled a 5-0 Bruin run as BU took a commanding 10-4 lead in the fifth. Benson finished the final set with five kills as BU hit .367 to take the match 15-6. 

The Bruins are now 3-1 in five set matches this season.