(WARRENSBURG, Mo.) — No. 5 Central Missouri Jennies beat Pittsburg State in straight sets, 25-17, 28-26, 25-10, to advance to the semifinals of the MIAA Tournament. The match took place Tuesday evening in the UCM Multipurpose Building. The Jennies hit .303 in the match, with 55 kills, while holding Pittsburg State to a .083 hitting percentage.
There were two tie scores in the first twelve points of set one. The Jennies took a two point lead to follow, and held the lead until Pittsburg State caught them for the last time of the set at 12-12. Central Missouri scored four of the next five points and held at least a four point lead for the rest of the set. The Jennies scored the last four points of the set, with a kill from Taylor Goodness, Becca Blaise and Haley Thompson. Thompson also had a block in the final four points of the set. Goodness had six kills in set one. Blaise had four and hit .667 in the set.
The second set was a battle between the Gorillas and Jennies, with 15 tie scores and 4 lead changes through the set. The Jennies started the set with the lead, and after Pittsburg State tied the score at 11-11, scored four points in a row to take a 15-11 lead. The Gorillas fired back and were able to scored four points in a row to tie the Jennies again at 15-15. Pittsburg State took the lead after another tie score at 16-16, only to be caught at 18-18. The Jennies later held a two point advantage, but were again caught at 22-22 for the 11th tie of the set. The set went on for eight more points with neither team scoring more than a point at a time, until the Julia Bates had two kills in a row to finish the match. Bates had six kills in set two with 12 assists and a block.
Pittsburg State was able to catch the Jennies only once in set three at 5-5. The Jennies held the Gorillas to under 10 points for a majority of the match, scoring the last 13 of 15 points in the set. Goodness finished the set with a kill, and had eight kills in the set. Thompson had six kills.
Bates had 10 kills and 36 assists for her fourth double-double this season. Bates was two digs shy of a triple-double. Thompson had 11 kills in the match, and hit .524 with two blocks. Becca Blaise had 10 kills and 14 digs for her second double-double this season. Goodness finished the match with 17 kills, and hit .308. Maddie Jones had five kills, and three blocks. Carly Sojka had two kills, and a block solo. Annie Reilly had 25 digs and a serving ace.
Central Missouri will host the semifinals and finals of the MIAA Tournament on Friday and Saturday. The Jennies will play Central Oklahoma on Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. following the first semifinal match between No. 11 Nebraska-Kearney and No. 8 Washburn. The championship game will take place Saturday night at 7 p.m.
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