KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - The last time the Truman State University volleyball team faced off against McKendree, it was in the finals of the 2016 GLVC Tournament. Even though Saturday's showdown between the two teams was a regular-season meeting early in the year, the atmosphere felt similar. When it was all said and done, though, the Bulldogs dropped a five-set squeaker to the Bearcats.

Truman now sits at 5-7 overall and 1-2 in the GLVC while McKendree stretched its winning streak to seven with a mark of 8-3, including a 3-0 record in conference action. Saturday, the Bulldog offense was led by Jasmine Brown (22 kills), Jocelynn Livingston (10 kills), Natalie Brimeyer (10 kills), Savvy Hughes (52 assists), and Claire Viviano (three service aces). Defensively, Lauren Wacker (32 digs) and Meghan Gasper (23 digs) each had big days while Brimeyer had another stellar effort above the net with nine blocks (two solo, seven assisted). Brimeyer may have had the best match of them all as she hit .360 with 10 kills and just one error on 25 total attacks.

Just to put into perspective how tightly contested the match actually was, the five sets saw a combined 32 ties and 15 lead changes. McKendree out-hit Truman by just .013 percent (.216-.203) and four kills (65-61). For the offenses as a whole, the Bearcats ended up taking just two more swings than the Bulldogs, 194-192. This was a terrific match by every sense of the word.

Statistically, the first and second sets were the tightest with 15 ties/lead changes apiece. Through the first 27 points of the first set, McKendree had a lead as big as three on four different occasions including 5-2, 6-3, 14-11, and 15-12. From there, Truman embarked on a 6-1 run that gave it a two-point advantage, 18-16, and forced the visitors to use a timeout. After three more deadlocks, the home team took the one-point lead, 25-24. However, McKendree rattled off the final three points to take the set, 27-25, and a 1-0 match advantage.

The away team controlled the action early in the second set with leads of 7-3 and 9-5. The hosts battled back, though, and eventually were able to tie the set up at 14-14 thanks in part to a 9-5 spurt. From there until the end of the set, each team led by more than one once, McKendree when it was up 20-18 and Truman when it had won the set, 25-23. The only lead that Truman had in the third set was at 2-1. Other than that, McKendree led it the entire time and had an advantage as big as six including 22-16, 23-17, 24-18, and 25-19.

The fourth set was the most well-played of the day for the Bulldogs. After going down 4-2, they proceeded to tally 13 of the next 16 points and had a lead of eight, 15-7. After that, McKendree was never closer than five, Truman won the set by eight, 25-17, and had sent the match to a fifth and deciding set.

In that fifth set, the Bearcats scored first and never looked back. They led by as many as five, 6-1, and the margin was never slimmer than two after that point. McKendree went on to win the set 15-11 and the match in five periods.

Next up, Truman will begin a three-match road trip with Missouri S&T on Wednesday, Sept. 27 with first serve from Rolla, Mo. set for 7 p.m.

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