EAST PEORIA, Ill. - Thursday night, the Great Lakes Valley Conference announced its postseason awards, which included Truman outside hitters,
Kayla Bastian (pictured) and
Jasmine Brown, as Second-Team All-GLVC honorees. Just over 15 hours later, those two combined to rack up 33 kills in a 3-1 revenge win over Drury in the quarterfinal round of the league tournament.
With the win, the Bulldogs got back to the .500 mark at 16-16 overall and will now advance to play the winner of No. 15 Lewis and Quincy on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Meanwhile, the Panthers dropped to 20-12 on the season and failed to win their quarterfinal match for the second time in as many years. The two teams' second meeting of the season was an incredibly tight one that saw 43 ties and 23 lead changes.
As mentioned above, it was the Bastian and Brown show on Friday inside the EastSide Centre. The redshirt senior sent home 17 kills to five errors on 54 total attacks for a .222 hitting percentage while the junior tallied 16 kills with six miscues on 40 swings for a .250 hitting percentage. Jasmine continued her red-hot stretch as in her past 10 matches, she has registered 124 kills to just 32 errors on 324 chances for a .284 hitting percentage.
Those two were joined at the top of the stats by
Savvy Hughes (48 assists, one service ace and 16 digs),
Natalie Brimeyer (four blocks) and
Lauren Wacker (21 digs). Truman's other major contributors included
Lacey Hill (nine kills),
Claire Wandrey (15 digs) and
Meghan Gasper (12 digs). Bastian (13 digs) and Hughes each had double-doubles to give them 13 and 14 for the year, respectively.
In the first set, the Bulldogs were seemingly in complete control for most of the action. Through 38 points of play, Truman led by eight, 23-15, and had led Drury by as many as nine earlier, 22-13. However, the Panthers proceeded to go on an 8-1 run to pull within one, 24-23. The Bulldogs then slammed the door and scored the next point to go up one set to none.
The next period represented Truman's best offensive effort of the day as the Bulldogs hit .325 with 16 kills to only three errors on 40 attempts. It started with neither team scoring more than three points in a row through the first 39 points of action, and Drury was ahead by one, 20-19. Through that opening stretch, the biggest lead for either team was three in favor of the Panthers, 11-8. Truman then ended the set on a 6-3 spurt and had itself a 2-0 match lead. Four of Bastian's 17 kills came in that stretch alone.
The third set was the tightest one of the afternoon as it saw 14 deadlocks and 10 lead changes. Neither team led by more than two until Drury was ahead 23-20 late. After that, the Bulldogs twice pulled within two before the Panthers ended the set with point No. 25.
That same trend of competitive play happened in the fourth set as neither team led by more than three until Truman took some initiative and led by four, 24-20. That 24th point for the Bulldogs came in the midst of an 11-4 run that pushed them to a 3-1 victory and the semifinal round.
For the third time in four years as a member of the GLVC, Truman volleyball has a date with the quarterfinals and it will come against either No. 15 Lewis or Quincy. Live stats and coverage by the GLVCSN will both be available right here at TrumanBulldogs.com.
