BALDWIN CITY - Kansas Wesleyan Women's Volleyball rallied from a 2-1 match deficit to come away with a 3-2 win over the Baker University Wildcats on Tuesday night at the Collins Center.
The Coyotes won the opening set 25-22, but dropped the second 25-23 and the third 25-21, before making a comeback at the end, winning the fourth 25-18 and the deciding fifth set 16-14.
Baker had a 14-10 lead in the first set but a later 4-0 spurt by the Coyotes made it 19-18 KWU. It was 21-all when the Coyotes got three straight points to have a set point at 24-22. Baker saved set point once before Kate Bebout's kill ended the set in favor of the Coyotes.
After trailing early in the second, a 6-0 run by the Coyotes gave KWU a 15-11 lead in the set off back-to-back kills by Joey Pennington. Wesleyan led the set 21-18, but Baker made a run down the stretch scoring seven of the last nine points to win the set.
In the third set, every time KWU made a little run to get close to Baker, the Wildcats responded with a little spurt of energy to keep the Coyotes at bay. Baker led 21-16 but the Coyotes got back within two at 23-21 but the Wildcats got the last two points of the set to take it 25-21.
Wesleyan came out to an early 7-3 lead in the fourth and extended the lead to 13-5 at one point. KWU led 19-12 but Baker got within five at 20-15. KWU scored the next three to take a 23-15 lead would close out the set with on a Madelyn Wolf kill.
In the deciding set, Baker took an early 3-1 lead, but the Coyotes answered right back to lead 7-4 on a Kylee Harris and Avery Conner block. Baker scored the next five points to take a 9-7 lead in the set. Three straight from the Coyotes gave KWU a 10-9 lead. Baker got the next three to take a 12-10 lead in the race to 15. The Wildcats had a 13-11 lead when the Coyotes got two big points to tie things up at 13. Baker got a kill to set up a potential match point, but KWU went to work on a kill by Kate Bebout and then two Baker hitting errors to give the Coyotes the set and match.
Wesleyan hit .200 as a team in the match and were led by Rylee Serpan's 17 kills. Joey Pennington had 14, Wolf 11 and Harris 10. Blair Pennington had 23 assists and Sara Bebout had 34. Conner and Kate Bebout had four blocks each. Kori Arnold led the back row defense with 23 digs, while Tristyn Hedman had 17, Sara Bebout 14 and Blair Pennington 11.