SIOUX CITY, Iowa. – On August 29, a shorthanded Bushnell volleyball team lost their first home match of the season, falling in straight sets to Oklahoma Wesleyan University. On Thursday, the Beacons exacted their revenge on the Eagles with a sweep of their own, finishing out pool play at the NAIA National Championship Tournament final site with a 1-1 split.
The Beacons (22-13) bounced back from a loss to No. 6 Bellevue on Wednesday with what will go down as one of the biggest if not THE most significant win in program history, collecting a straight-set 25-23, 25-21, 25-20 win.
The victory gave the team a new school record with their 22
nd win of the season while their first-ever win at the NAIA final site allowed them a chance to remain alive in the national championship picture for at least 24 more hours.
"What a great response from this team," said Head Coach Jason Corwin. "It was a little bit of a disappointing performance yesterday and some things we thought we left on the table. Bellevue is a very good team and we just didn't have it at the moment. We came out ready to play today and really challenged another good team."
Bushnell took control of the match right away scoring 19 of their 25 points themselves in the opening set as they hit .256. The went on to cap of the night with a near-flawless clinching third set that saw the team collect 18 kills and commit just three errors.
Senior Hailey Heider once again led the way for the Beacons with an inspired match, collecting 17 kills and equaling a match-high with three blocks. Amyah Semau added 13 kills, hitting .417 while she collected nine digs and a pair of service aces and on the other side, Leah Agost earned nine kills and two blocks.
Corwin said, "We were able to spread the ball out across the board and when we are able to do that and hit for a decent percentage it puts a lot of pressure on our opponent because they don't know where to lock in and when we are pushing the tempo we can play very successful volleyball."
Emma Fa'alogo posted a 22-assist performance to lead the Beacons while Kailey Shirley ended her night with a match-high 18 digs.
Oklahoma Wesleyan (26-4) was swept for just the second time this season, the other coming in Salem against Corban University. The Eagles were led by Evelyn Rohrberg, collecting 14 kills while Maria Sanra Cruz posted nine. Sydney Collins earned a match-high 31 assists in the loss.
UP NEXT: With Thursday's win, Bushnell still holds out a sliver of hope that they can continue their season. The Beacons need OKWU to close out pool play with a win over Bellevue on Friday evening, which would force a tie-breaker scenario as all three teams will have gone 1-1 in the pool.
That tie-breaker would play out in a pair of single-set playoffs to 25 points with the winner of the tie-breakers advancing to the national quarterfinals on Saturday.
The Bellevue-Oklahoma Wesleyan match up begins at 5:30 pm Pacific Time on Friday and can be watched for FREE on the NAIA Channel of the Urban Edge Network click
HERE. Any potential tiebreaker will also be available to stream on UEN.
Full schedule and additional links are located
HERE on naia.org