The HAAC No. 4 Lady Ravens dominated No. 5 William Jewell College 3-1 in the conference tournament quarterfinals Nov. 7, advancing to the semifinals at No. 1 seed Lindenwood Wednesday.
In the first match of the game, the Ravens started off looking good and got an easy 25-21 victory over the Cardinals.
“We came out with a lot of momentum,” outside hitter Erin O’Connor said. “We played with heart in the first match.”
However, going into the second match of the game, the ladies struggled. The Cardinals took an early lead over the Ravens.
“We did not come out with the same intensity,” head coach Mary Lile said. “It was like a different team.”
The Cardinals dominated the second match, getting a 25-15 victory over the Ravens.
“We know when we are playing our game,” O’Connor said. “We got down and had no intensity during the [second] game.”
BC pulled out a 25-15 victory over the Cardinals in the game’s third frame.
“Before the third game, we told ourselves that we needed to get the team back from the first match,” O’Connor said. “We needed to settle down and start playing our game.”
The Ravens win in the third match gave them momentum heading into the fourth.
The Cardinals took an early lead over the Ravens, who were struggling to keep up. But Benedictine started to rally against the Cardinals.
“We started off slow,” O’Connor said. “We didn’t really start to play our game till about halfway through the game.”
The Lady Ravens pulled out a 25-20 victory over the Lady Cardinals for the win and advanced in tournament play.
“We struggled in the fourth match,” middle hitter Dain Finney said. “But we got revved up in the fourth because we didn’t want a fifth match, so we got it. And we came out with the right mentality.”
The Lady Ravens were led by outside hitter Lisa Witte with 12 kills and O’Connor with 11 kills and 20 digs. Defensive specialist Lauren Russell had 18 digs and setter Susan Specht had 39 assists, which helped BC chalk up 50 kills.
The win in the quarterfinals against William Jewell advanced the Lady Ravens to the semifinals against the Lady Lions of Lindenwood.
During the regular season, the Lady Ravens lost 3-0 against Lindenwood, but the matches were very close.
“I’m excited to get to play them again,” O’Connor said. “When we played them last time, the games were close. And we are a completely different team from when we played them last. Our team has improved so much since then; it should be a great game.”
The results from the HAAC Tournament semifinals were not available as of press time.
