MOUNT PLEASANT – Iowa Wesleyan College threw another scare into one of the better volleyball teams in the Midwest Collegiate Conference on Wednesday, but St. Ambrose University came back for a 3-2 win over the Tigers Wednesday night at Ruble Arena.
The Queen Bees rallied from a two sets-to-one deficit and took the decisive fifth set for a 19-25, 25-18, 26-28, 25-22, 15-10 win. St. Ambrose defeated the Tigers for the sixth straight time in the series between the teams and improved to 4-1 in the MCC and 13-10 overall, while Wesleyan is now 8-13 overall, 0-4 in conference play.
The Tigers got 17 kills from Megan McVey (Fr.-Fort Worth, Texas), a career- and IWC season-high. It was St. Ambrose, though, that came up with more big plays at the end, scoring six straight points in the final set to turn a 7-6 deficit into a 12-7 lead that stood up the rest of the way.
IWC recovered from a slow start in the opening set to take control of the match early. The Tigers fell behind 6-2 early on but rallied to a 19-12 lead, as McVey had five kills in the opener and the Tigers hit .175 to start off, with 15 kills to only eight errors.
St. Ambrose led almost from start-to-finish in the second game to even it up before the third set was a gut check for both teams. Neither team could pull away in a set that featured 20 ties and saw IWC fight through a set point, getting kills from Katie Jammer (So.-Green Bay, Wis.) and B.J. Wagy (So.-Cedar Rapids, Iowa) at key points to take the set and the upper hand in the match.
The Queen Bees jumped out to a sizeable lead several times in the fourth set before the Tigers rallied within two points on several occasions. Kait Gallagher finished the set with the Bees’ final three kills to send the match to a deciding set. In the final set the teams were tied seven times early on, but the Tigers committed four attack errors during SAU’s six-point run and could only get as close as 13-10 the rest of the way.
Jammer finished with 12 kills, while Kendra Zimmerman (So.-Green Bay, Wis.) had 42 assists. Katie Leidl (Jr.-Esterhazy, Saskatchewan) and Corrie Wagner (Sr.-Iowa City, Iowa) finished with 35 and 32 kills, respectively.
Megan O’Shea led St. Ambrose with 17 kills, while Gallagher added 14. The Queen Bees posted a slightly better hitting percentage than IWC, with 65 kills and 33 errors in 254 attempts (.126) to 54 kills and 30 errors in 243 attempts (.099) for the Tigers.
The Tigers return to the court next Tuesday to face MCC rival William Penn University in a match in Oskaloosa at 7 p.m.
For more information regarding the IWC volleyball program or any of the Tiger athletic teams, contact sports information director Adam Glatczak (319-385-6306 phone; 319-385-6384 FAX; aglatczak@iwc.edu e-mail) or log on to IWC's athletics web site at www.iwc.edu/athletics.
Box score SAU 3 IWC 2
