KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - As Kayla Bastian (pictured) gets closer and closer to becoming the 17th member of Truman volleyball's 1,000-kill club, she's been playing some of her best volleyball of the season. Tonight, in the Bulldogs' final nonconference match of the regular season, the outside hitter led her team to a 3-1 win over Missouri Western State inside Pershing Arena.

With the win, Truman improved its overall record to 10-14 while Missouri Western State now sits at 14-10 on the year. In her last three matches, Bastian has hit .290 with 47 kills and only five errors on 145 total attacks. Tuesday night's effort was the best of those three as she had 18 kills and just two errors on 49 swings for a .327 hitting percentage. Not only that, but the Kewaskum, Wis. native added a career-high seven service aces and 15 digs for her 11th double-double of 2016 and 40th of her career.

The Purple and White's other leaders included Savvy Hughes (43 assists/tied season high), Natalie Brimeyer (seven blocks), and Lauren Wacker (18 digs). With another 12 digs, Hughes earned her 11th double-double of the season, Jasmine Brown added 12 kills on 39 total attacks while Claire Wandrey dug out 10 balls to make it four Bulldogs with at least 10 in that category. As a team, the Bulldogs eclipsed 10 service aces for only the second time this season thanks to 12 of them against the Griffons.

The Breakdown

• Missouri Western State's head coach didn't make the trip because of a looming pregnancy, so assistant coach and former Bulldog, Ashley Petak, took over for the night.
• In Truman's record books, Petak is listed quite a bit including fourth in career assists (3,461), sixth in career service aces (138) and 10th in career assists per set (6.22).
• She is in her first season as an assistant with the Griffons.
• In the first set, other than a tie at 1-1, Truman led throughout the set including a lead as big as nine at 20-11.
• At one point, the home team used a 9-3 run to go up by seven, 14-7.
• The second set was the closest one of the night, by far, as it featured 18 ties and five lead changes.
• The final of those 18 deadlocks was 23-23 before the away team tallied the final two points to take the set.
• Out of the intermisison for the third, the visitors stormed out to a 3-0 advantage, but the Bulldogs were having none of it.
• They proceeded to score 18 of the next 23 points to go up 10, 18-8.
• After Truman's biggest lead of the set at 11 (20-9 and 21-10), Missouri Western State proceeded to rattle off a 6-1 spurt to pull within six, 22-16.
• The Bulldogs did the rest, though, and were up two sets to one.
• That was the Purple and White's best offensive set of they night as they hit .367 with 13 kills and two errors on 30 swings.
• The Griffons led 3-1 early in the fourth before Truman completely took over.
• It registered 14 of the next 16 to take a commanding lead of 15-5.
• From that point on, Missouri Western State was never closer than five (24-19).

Next up, the Bulldogs will host Indianapolis on Friday for Dig Pink Night (7 p.m.) and Saint Joseph's on Saturday for Senior Day (1 p.m.). Both matches will feature live stats at TrumanBulldogs.com and a live broadcast at GLVCSN.com/Truman.