John Brown volleyball team hits 20-win mark after sweeping USAO, MACU

The John Brown University volleyball squad improved to 20-5 and 9-2 in Sooner Athletic Conference play last weekend after taking straight-set victories over Science and Arts (Okla.) on Friday evening before sweeping MidAmerica Christian (Okla.) on Saturday.

At the Drover Fieldhouse on Friday night, the Golden Eagles rode 11 kills from junior Bayli Reagan and sophomore Carly McKinney to a 25-12, 25-14, 25-8 decimation of the Drovers (2-14, 1-10). Sophomore Kinzee Mayo finished with a perfect five kills on five swings (5-0-5), while McKinney boasted a .579 hitting percentage (11-0-19) as JBU hit .337 on the evening.

Senior Alyssa Arnold passed out 38 assists, churning the John Brown offense to a .337 (42-12-89) outing while senior Beth Brankle led the back line with 22 digs.

“Our team did a good job coming out of the gate focused and was very effective and efficient in all they did tonight,” head coach Ken Carver said. “We’ve spent the past week working on our offensive tempo, so to see our team come out and fire on all cylinders speaks to our players’ ability to put things into practice.

“We served well and were able to keep USAO primarily out of system most of the match. Our team did a good job playing defense and taking advantage of the free balls we were getting and translating those to immediate points. Alyssa (Arnold) did another fantastic job spreading our offense around while our pin attackers, in particular, did an excellent job of putting the ball down and varying the shots they took.”

Dana Stepankova paced USAO with just seven kills as the Drover offense struggled to put away shots, hitting a mere -.022 (15-17-89) on the match.

In the second outing of the weekend, the McKinney and Meyer show went to work at Mid-America Christian as the Golden Eagles swept the Evangels 25-14, 25-15, 26-24 at the Gaulke Activities Center.

McKinney boasted a match-best 13 kills, hitting .480 (13-1-25), but it was the two middles for John Brown that carried the majority of the offense in sophomore Jessica Meyer and Lindsey Davis. Meyer had a career-best outing, recording 11 kills on a perfect attacking afternoon (11-0-11) while Davis put down nine kills, attacking at a .471 clip (91-17).

MACU was its own worst enemy, hitting just .097 (26-17-93). Laurel Church had a team-best seven terminations.

“We did a good job, once again, in coming out and playing how we’d like to at the start of the match,” Carver said. “To MACU’s credit, they continued to work hard and stay positive and by the third set competed very well against us.”

Arnold added 36 assists in the win while Brankle scooped a match-best 18. Arnold added 11 digs in her 10th double-double of the season.

The Golden Eagles return to action at tonight at 7 p.m. at Bill George Arena against Bacone (Okla.).