Northwest Falls to Missouri Southern in Regular Season Finale

JOPLIN, Mo.—The Northwest Missouri State volleyball team ended its regular season on Saturday night with a four set loss on the road to Missouri Southern. Set scores went 22-25, 25-22, 22-25 and 19-25. The Bearcats will now have to wait anxiously for Sunday’s selection show to see if they will make their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.

Sara Falcone and Alex Hanna led a balanced Bearcat attack on Saturday night with 12 kills each. Falcone also collected her ninth double-double of the season by adding 12 digs to go along with her three total blocks and a service ace. Hanna added a solo block of her own in the loss.

Whitney Mason and Amber Ryan hit the double-digit mark in kills as well with 10 apiece. Mason hit .421 in the match while Ryan hit .400 for Northwest (15-14, 11-9 MIAA). Laira Akin had a big match for the Bearcats, recording her eighth double-double of the season with 43 assists and 14 digs. Akin also added three kills, three blocks and a team-high two aces.

Paige Spangenberg led the back with 26 digs, moving her into sole possession of second-place on the MIAA’s career digs list with 2,470. Andrea Potter added six digs of her own.

The keys in this match came down to miscues, as the Bearcats recorded 23 attack errors, to Missouri Southern’s (18-4, 8-12 MIAA) 17. Northwest committed a season-high 11 service errors in the loss, while the Lions also out-blocked Northwest 11-6.

The NCAA Tournament selections will be announced at 9 p.m. on Sunday on NCAA.com. Northwest currently stands in seventh-place in the South Central Region, with the top eight teams making the tournament. However, the Heartland conference has no team ranked in the regional and will receive an automatic bid from its conference champion. Missouri Southern is currently ranked ninth in the region and went 1-2 this week. Nebraska-Omaha, who sits eighth, lost its last match of the year to Central Missouri on Friday.