Kansas City
2-4
Austin Peay
1-8
Volleyball Splits on Day Two of Mizzou Invitational
9/14/2019 5:12:00 PM | Volleyball
Roos Defeat Austin Peay, Fall to Missouri
KANSAS CITY, Mo - For the second weekend in a row, Kansas City volleyball walks away from an invitational with a 1-2 record after defeating Austin Peay (23-25, 25-22, 25-19, 27-25) and falling to Missouri (25-12, 25-19, 25-23) on Saturday. The results move the Roos to 2-5 on the year.
In the first match of the day, the Roos made some changes to their usual starting lineup. Rather than using Maddie Renn as the libero, Alex Ratzlaff took that title and Renn started in her position of defensive specialist. This was a move that would prove to pay off for Kansas City, as Ratzlaff was the Roo's leading back line defender. She dug up 18 Governor attacks in her first match as libero this season.
After falling 25-10 in the first set of yesterday's match against Northern Iowa, KC needed to come out with more urgency against the Governors. They did just that, jumping out to a 14-10 lead behind a balanced attack. Five different Roos had kills within those first 24 points, led by three from both Alicia Harrington and Ty Lukes. The Roos held their lead to 23-19, before Austin Peay rattled off the last six points of the set to take it away.
After that it was all business for Kansas City. In sets two and three, the Roos threw down 34 kills behind a .303 hitting percentage. They kept their serve consistent, sending across only one service error on 51 total serves, with aces from Melanie Brecka and Kennedy Schritenthal.
In the fourth set, it looked like the tides may have turned the way of the Governors. They connected for ten kills to jump out to a 16-9 lead, while forcing four attack errors from KC. Then the Roos started chipping away at the Austin Peay lead. Kelsie Milkowski got her first kill of the season, Maddie Renn found the court for a service ace, Ty Lukes had a pair of kills, and just like that things were tied at 21. The game went back and forth to 25-25, before a service error and an attack error by the Governors gave Kansas City the match.
The Roos were led in the attack by Harrington and Lukes, who ended the match with 17 and 16 kills, respectively. Mykal Sadler ended the match with 11 kills and no errors on 20 attacks, good for a .550 hitting percentage. It was her second match in a row with a hitting percentage above .500, after hitting 9/0/18 against Northern Iowa yesterday.
Kansas City was then tasked with matching up against the number 21 team in the nation, Missouri. The Tigers came into the match with a 6-0 record after blowing by both Austin Peay and Northern Iowa on Friday.Â
The Roos improved consistently with each set, but in the end had no answer for the Tigers' hitting power. Mizzou ended the match with a team hitting percentage of .526, including a .900 (18/0/20) second set.Â
Harrington and Lukes led the Roos once again with their swinging, contributing 12 and 10 kills. Ratzlaff led the dig effort for the fourth match in a row, controlling 10 Missouri attacks.
Up Next: The Roos travel to Brookings, S.D. next weekend to compete in the Jackrabbit Invitational. They will face Milwaukee and Valparaiso on Friday before matching up with the host team, South Dakota State on Saturday.
