CREVE COUER, Mo. - Facing RV/top-seeded Missouri Baptist University (24-11, 11-0 American Midwest Conference) at the Spartans' place, fourth-seeded William Woods University (25-12, 8-3) fell 25-17, 25-18, 25-22 in the AMC Tournament semifinals Friday at Carl & Deloris Petty SRC.

"It's a hard loss tonight; we couldn't quite get things rolling the way we needed to," William Woods volleyball coach Kandace Cook said. "We had a good run this season. We are excited for a new conference and more consistent competition to continue to grow our program."

The Owls notched 20 kills with a .000 hitting percentage, six aces, three blocks, 20 assists and 27 digs, compared to the Spartans' 40 kills with a .245 hitting percentage, eight aces, nine blocks, 38 assists and 36 digs.

Facing an MBU team that went unbeaten en route to the AMC regular season title, WWU didn't have the usual numbers it would have against most other teams it faced on the year. Pamela Durazo and Luciana Paiva Pereira each had five kills to account for half the Owls' kills, Erin Treis registered a team-high 13 assists and Lauren Adams posted a team-high .143 hitting percentage with two kills in her final game for Woods.

In the first set, the Owls recorded seven kills with a .212 hitting percentage, and MBU had 14 kills with a .400 hitting percentage. WWU didn't take the lead in the set, and the closest it got to the Spartans after the first 10 points was a three-point deficit at 7-4 when Durazo and Reanna Dodge went up for a block. The Spartans went on to take a 21-14 lead before the Owls attempted a comeback by posting three points with no reply to trim their deficit to 21-17; Mya Clapp served an ace, and Paiva Pereira put down a kill provided by Treis during the run. MBU called timeout and scored four unanswered points to win set one.

William Woods' best set was the second, with seven kills and a .350 hitting percentage; the Spartans totaled 12 kills and a .480 hitting percentage. The Owls took their only lead of the set at 1-0 on an MBU bad set, and the closest they got after the first 10 points was a three-point deficit (7-4) on Vitoria Campos Mello's kill off a Juliana Neves assist. From there, the Spartans tallied the following nine points to go up 16-4. It remained a double-digit Owls deficit until they scored five straight points to put it at 22-15 MBU - a combined block by Campos Mello and Durazo ended the run. After that, each team scored three points, the Spartans the last of them to take the set by seven points.

The Owls couldn't get their attack going in the third set, with six kills and a -.032 hitting percentage to Missouri Baptist's 14 kills and .235 hitting percentage. While WWU's attacking numbers may not have shown it, the Owls had the lead four times, and they went up by as much as four points (11-7) when a Clapp ace ended a 3-0 run. Not only did The Woods have its most set leads in set three, but it also kept it close throughout, tying twice when the Spartans were within at least four points of winning their match-set point. The Owls knotted it at 21 when it registered four successive points, the first on an Adams kill provided by Treis and the last three on back-to-back-to-back Clapp aces. MBU won the following point, then WWU made it 22-all before the Spartans won the following three points to achieve the sweep and advance to their fifth straight AMC Tournament championship.

Ironically, the Owls' final AMC match was against the team it'll leave the conference with after this school year. Missouri Baptist will join Wiliam Woods in jumping ship to the Heart of America Athletic Conference next school year.

The Owls have been in the AMC for the last 28 seasons of the program's 50-year history, and they ended their stint with an all-time conference record of 211-133 and one regular-season title in 2020 - played in spring 2021 due to the COVID pandemic.

As for William Woods' season, Cook, in just her second year as a college volleyball head coach, guided the Owls to their third 25-win season of the 21st century and their first since first-year college head coach Ashley Nehls guided WWU to a 26-9 mark in 2017. 

The Owls finished the campaign in the top 10 in the NAIA in three statistics: ninth in kills (1,646), 10th in block total (277) and points (2,142.5). In 37 matches, WWU recorded 12.56 kills per set with a .232 hitting percentage.

"I'm still proud of our team and the work they did put in this year," Cook said. "I'm excited for spring season training and for the continued success and growth of our program."