KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri Baptist University won the NAIA Women's Volleyball National Championship 3-2 against Park University Saturday at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa.
It is the second straight championship for the No. 3 ranked Spartans, who finished the season 33-2 after a 29-match win streak.
The Pirates, who are ranked fourth, finish 34-3. The loss brings an end to Park University's 31-match win streak, which first began in September.
Missouri Baptist took an early lead, winning the first set 25-20. However, the game was neck and neck throughout the evening, with Park winning the second set 25-20. After the Spartans won set three 25-15 and the Pirates led set four 25-15, both teams were tied up 2-2 and entered set five for all the marbles.
Park University took the lead 5-0 in the final set with kills from Debora Bernardi and Nada Meawad, both from Amanda Mendes, and three attack errors from Missouri Baptist University. However, Missouri Baptist was able to tie the score 6-6 and did not look back from there.
Missouri Baptist scored nine of the final 11 points of the match to secure the victory, with two kills from Emma Lattimore and Giovanna Tapligiana each.
Meawad of Park University racked up 20 kills, the most of the match.
The Pirates had 1,768 overall kills for the season and prior to the championship match led the Heart of America Athletic Conference with 15.03 kills per set.
Missouri Baptist finished with a total of 1,722 kills.
The Spartans had 23 attack errors while the Pirates ended up with 30.
All-time, Missouri Baptist now leads 16-13 against Park University.
