Box Score HANNIBAL, Mo. - William Woods University (21-10, 5-2 American Midwest Conference) rolled through yet another opponent, winning its ninth in a row and earning its sixth consecutive straight-set victory, as the Owls beat Hannibal-LaGrange University (6-25, 3-4) 25-20, 25-12, 25-17 in an AMC matchup Monday at Mabee Sports Complex.
Aside from aces (3-5), William Woods led in all the notable team statistics: Kills (35-26), hitting percentage (.315-.049), assists (31-24), digs (30-21) and blocks (8-1). The Owls'
Luciana Paiva Pereira notched a match-high nine kills while hitting .467,
Erin Treis tallied a team-high 16 assists and added eight digs and
Madelyn Ashton pulled down a match-high nine digs.
"It was a good night for us picking up our ninth win in a row!" William Woods volleyball coach
Kandace Cook said. "We were able to utilize some of the depth in our team and get moving after having several days off in a row this weekend."
Despite sweeping the Trojans, William Woods had a slow start, registering nine kills with a .115 hitting percentage in the first set compared to HLGU's 10 kills with a .148 hitting percentage. The Trojans' only lead was at 2-1, and after they went on a 3-0 run to tie it at 5, the Owls started a 3-0 run of their own and went ahead for good on
Pamela Durazo's kill provided by Treis that made it 6-5 WWU. Treis totaled five assists, and Durazo had three kills in set one.
Vitoria Campos Mello, who had three kills and a block in the first set, sent the ball over the net for a kill off an Ashton assist to hand the Owls set-point.
William Woods heated up offensively in the second set, posting 12 kills while hitting .579, much more efficient than HLGU, which had seven kills while hitting .000. A Paiva Pereira kill assisted by Treis gave the Owls the first point, and they remained in front the rest of set two. One of Marrisa Solverud's tri-match-high two blocks in the contest gave WWU its first double-digit lead of the match at 15-5. Following that, the Trojans narrowed their deficit to as low as eight points before Paiva Pereira's second and final kill, provided by Treis in the set, sent the Owls ahead by double digits for the remainder of the set at 19-9. An
Andressa M. Borges kill from a
Juliana Neves pass secured the set-two victory for WWU.
The Owls remained superior offensively as it achieved the sweep, recording 14 kills with a .321 hitting percentage, while Hannibal-LaGrange had nine kills and a .000 hitting percentage in the third set. Although WWU eventually got the job done, it had to overcome four five-point deficits - the first at 6-1 and the last at 12-7 - before going on top the rest of the way at 13-12 on Paiva Pereira's kill, assisted by Ashton. That was the second to last point of the Owls' set-high 7-0 run. The Trojans committed back-to-back attack errors to gift Wiliam Woods the final two points of its straight-set victory.
"We continue to see where we can improve and where we need to grow as a team," Cook said. "We are working towards our peak of the season and figuring out what that looks like for us. We are excited to be at a 5-2 record in conference and have lots to look forward to in the very near future!"
Up next, the Owls play the most formidable opponent left on their regular season schedule this year, (RV) Missouri Baptist University (17-11, 6-0 AMC), in an AMC contest at 6 p.m. Thursday at Carl & Deloris Petty SRC in St. Louis. William Woods will need to carry over its strong form for that matchup, as it hasn't won a set in its six most recent meetings against the Spartans; the last time the Owls won a set was in its sweep of MBU on March 30, 2021, in St. Louis.
