Chapman stats  I  Mary Hardin-Baylor stats

COLORADO SPRINGS, Co. - The Bluffton University volleyball team made day one at Colorado College look easy as the Beavers took down Chapman (25-20, 25-12, 25-17) in three quick sets before finishing off #26 Mary Hardin-Baylor (25-19, 19-25, 28-26, 25-23) in four! Consecutive victories at the Colorado College Invitational helped the Beavers even their season mark at 3-3 heading into Saturday's battles with Wisconsin-Whitewater and host Colorado College.

The first set was a back-and-forth affair, including seven ties, until three straight points pushed the Beavers out to a 16-12 advantage. Consecutive Becca Tourney (Columbia City, Ind.) service aces following an Erin Weisgarber (Bolivar/Tuscarawas Valley) kill put Bluffton up by four points. The Panthers never got closer than two points the rest of the way as the Beavers wrapped up the lidlifter with a 25-20 victory.

Bluffton went up 5-1 and 11-6 in set two before six straight Sydney Mohler (Lima/Central Catholic) serves salted away a 25-12 drubbing in the second set. Becca Tourney and Abby Rohrbach (New Knoxville) served the Beavers to a 25-17 win in the clincher as it took Bluffton just over an hour to drop Chapman in straight sets on Friday morning.

The Bluffton front line lit up Chapman with 52 kills against just six errors for a phenomenal .484 hitting percentage. Jenny Brown (St. Marys/Memorial) pounded 15 winners with just one error for a .636 hitting percentage. Junior middle Lauren Weisgarber (Bolivar/Tuscarawas Valley) showed no flaws with seven kills and no errors on a paltry 10 swings (.700 hitting). Fellow junior MacKenzie McFarlin (Ashland) continued her torrid play with 13 kills and a .407 hitting percentage while senior Kendra Parmenter (Grove City) knocked down seven kills with no errors, hitting at a .500 clip.

Freshmen Erin Weisgarber and Jessie Gibson (Warsaw/River View) handed out 32 and 10 assists, respectively. Becca Tourney stuffed the stat sheet with 10 digs, five kills and three aces in the sweep. Jenny Brown was in on three blocks against the Panthers.

In Bluffton's thrilling four-set win over Mary Hardin-Baylor, seniors Jenny Brown and Kendra Parmenter paced the attack with 14 kills apiece. McFarlin was right behind with 13 counters and a .323 hitting percentage. Brown was in on six blocks, including two solos.

Sydney Mohler led the defense with 15 pickups, while Tourney and Erin Weisgarber tallied 13 and 10 digs, respectively. Weisgarber doled out 48 assists for the victors. McFarlin just missed out on a double-double with nine digs and Abby Rohrbach rifled a pair of service aces.

The Beavers trailed 20-18 and 24-22 in the third set before a 6-2 spurt powered by serves from Erin Weisgarber and McFarlin put Bluffton up two sets to one. A 16-9 spread in the clincher had the Beavers on the verge of a blowout, but Mary Hardin-Baylor would not go away, pulling within a point at 20-19 and again at 24-23 before McFarlin ended the match with her 13th kill!

Following a night of Colorado sightseeing, Bluffton will do battle with #17 Wisconsin-Whitewater at 6 PM Ohio time before wrapping up the tournament against the host Tigers (#13 nationally) at 8 PM.

-BEAVERS-