Mustangs triumphant at Charger Invite

SIOUX CITY, Iowa- The Mount Mercy women's volleyball team went undefeated this past weekend at the Briar Cliff Charger Invite, defeating Valley City State (N.D.) 3-2 Friday night before consecutive sweeps of Southwestern (Kan.) and Briar Cliff on Saturday. 

The Mustangs won the first set agasint the Vikings, but quickly found themselves down 2-1. Valley City State (0-2) recorded the first point of the fourth set, but Mount Mercy never surrendered the lead for the rest of the match. The Vikings did tie the fifth set at 14-14, but back-to-back kills from Kendall McNaull and Maggie Peters gave the Mustangs the come from behind five-set win 25-18, 21-25, 25-27, 25-18, 16-14. Mackenzie Murphy, Katie Kopriva, and Peters all had double-digit kills for Mount Mercy, while Hailey Hested dished out 45 assists and grabbed 17 digs. 

In the first set against Southwestern (1-3), the Mustangs recorded a set season-high with 20 team kills. After the first two sets were close, 25-21 and 27-25, Mount Mercy cruised to a commanding 25-6 third-set win for their first sweep of the season. Murphy drilled 18 kills on a .436 hitting percentage to pace all players. Peters was right behind hitting a scorching .455 with 13 kills. Mount Mercy had their best offensive performance of the weekend hitting .336 as a team. 

The momentum stayed with the Mustangs in their final match of the tournament, routing Briar Cliff 25-19, 27-25, 25-19 to extend their winning streak to six. The first set was back and forth until the Mustangs broke the 14-14 tie with four straight points and never looked back. Set two was much of the same and needed extra points to decide a winner. The Mustangs trailed 23-24, but a Murphy kill evened the match. Briar Cliff (1-2) responded with a kill, but Murphy had an answer with another kill making it 25-25. An attack error by the Chargers, set up Murphy for the set-winning kill. The Mustangs never trailed in the third set, leading by as many as 10. Murphy stayed hot with her second straight match with 18 kills. Rylie Mussman had a match-high 16 digs and Murphy finished with 15 digs for a double-double.

Mount Mercy (6-1) finishes their non-conference stint on Tuesday, August 30th at Iowa Wesleyan (0-0). The match starts at 7:00 in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.