WICHITA, Kan. – The Friends University Falcons squared off with the Southwestern College Lady Builders and came away with a hard-fought 3-2 victory in KCAC action tonight (Oct. 16) inside the Garvey Center.
The Falcons got off to a strong start and won the first set 25-15 behind four kills each from the powerful trio of Sydney Lentz, Sofia Mekelburg and Gabriella Lujan.
The second set was tighter, but the Falcons finally pulled away by scoring five of the last six points to win 25-20 and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Friends appeared poised to end the match in a sweep when a service ace by Anicia Tyson-Salas made it 20-19 after the Lady Builders had built an 18-13 lead.
But Southwestern righted the ship again and closed the set with the final four points and six of the last seven to win 25-21 and stay alive.
The Lady Builders carried over that momentum and quickly pulled out to a 10-4 lead in the fourth set.
Friends fought back though and got consecutive kills from Lentz to cap a 10-4 run of their own and tie things up at 14-14.
The set would feature four more gridlocks until the Lady Builders pulled away with a 7-2 run for a 25-20 win to force the decisive fifth set.
With it looking like the Lady Builders would rally from two sets down to win after going up 9-5 in the fifth, the Falcons were undeterred and promptly scored the next four points to pull even.
It was still tied at 11-11 when Lentz punctuated her clutch performance with three kills from Quinn Curran, including the game-winning kill for a 15-13 victory.
"This was a gritty win tonight," said Friends volleyball head coach Martin Ayin. "Our team worked hard to regroup and grind back into rhythm especially in an emotional fifth set. Very proud of them sticking together and pulling out the win. Thank you again to our family, friends and fans who spent their late evening with us. All gas, no brakes!"
Lentz delivered 22 kills, with Samantha Johnson recording 14 kills and Lujan finishing with 13 kills to lead a stout Falcon offensive attack. Setting the table all night for that offensive output was Curran, who contributed a career-high 58 assists. The 58 assists by Curran are just seven shy of the single-game modern-era school record set by Friends University Athletic Hall of Famer Addie Jo Peterson in 2010.
Defensively, Antonia Perier (18 digs), Jenae Dearing (career-high 15 digs), Saidy Gonzalez (career-high 12 digs) and Tammy Melendez (10 digs) led the way for the Falcons.
Gabi Theut paced the Lady Builders with 16 kills and Haley Shaw had 24 assists. Avery Riedel led Southwestern with 22 digs.
The Falcons will now go for their third straight win Saturday afternoon (Oct. 19) at York University starting at 3:30 pm.
