Bearcats lose in five to No. 13 Truman State on Senior Night

Northwest Missouri State's volleyball team gave an inspired on Senior Night, pushing No. 13 Truman State to five sets.

It was then that their upset bid went up in smoke.

Taking control right from the start, Truman State claimed the fifth set 15-5 to pull out a 3-2 match win Saturday in the regular season finale at Bearcat Arena.

Northwest drew even in the match twice by winning the second and fourth sets 25-18 after Truman took the first set 26-24 and the third 25-21.

In the fifth set, the Bulldogs scored 10 of the first 11 points and closed out the match with four straight after Northwest pulled within six at 11-5.

All four points came on kills from different hitters, giving them eight for the set.

Needing a win to finish fifth in the conference, Northwest (15-16, 9-9) dropped to sixth and will face No. 3 seed Central Missouri in the opening round of the inaugural MIAA Tournament tonight at 7 p.m. in Warrensburg.

Truman State (27-3, 15-3) completed the season sweep of Northwest and wound up fourth in the conference.

Hitting .167 as a team, the Bulldogs had four attackers with double-digit kills. They were topped by Megan Sharpe's 13 on .323 hitting. She also had four block assists.

Allie Brak followed up with 12. Abby Heise (11 kills) and Ali Patterson (10 kills) were the other two in double-figures.

Truman setter Meghan Zimmerman distributed 47 assists, and Abby Moser had a team-high 20 digs.

Emily Briseno added four solo blocks.

Northwest hit .112 for the match and was at its best in the second set, hitting .306.

The Bearcats received a match-high 16 kills from freshman Shelby Duren. Sophomore Brooke Bartosh finished with 12 kills along with five block assists.

Sophomore Abby Graves totaled 10 kills. Mackie Keller tossed in eight more. Whitney Mason had four kills and four block assists.

Freshman setter Dallas Gardner tallied 43 assists, and senior libero Tori Beckman piled up a match-high 36 digs.

Beckman, outside hitter Kelsey Larson and defensive specialist Alicia Watson were the team's three seniors honored prior to the match.

The Bearcats, who went 0-9 against the conference's top five teams during the regular season, need an upset of No. 8 Central Missouri (24-5) to extend their journey beyond tonight.

Northwest lost both regular season meetings to UCM, 3-0 and 3-1.

UCM has beaten Northwest 14 consecutive times, a streak that dates back to the 2005 season.