BOLIVAR, Mo. - Southwest Baptist gave the Hawks a run for their money in QU's opening weekend as a nationally ranked squad. The Bearcats pushed the match to five sets before Quincy captured the decisive fifth frame to forward it's win streak to 18 matches with a victory over SBU (25-18, 21-25, 25-20, 24-26, 15-9). 

Set One: 

The Hawks fell behind early at 8-4 but worked their way back into the lead later in the set on a three-point run to make it 12-11. Following an SBU point to knot the score at 12-12, QU took five of the next six points on four errors from its opponent, three straight kills from Emma Wijnbergen and a block from Alice Pavan and Wijnbergen to make it 18-13.

Shortly after at 20-15, the Hawks used a three-point run on an error along with a bock and kill for Pavan to move ahead 23-15. Quincy rolled on to a 25-18 winner in the first set. 

Set Two: 

Kills from Susanna Beretti, Erin Matzke and Wijnbergen, along with a Bearcat error put QU ahead 4-1. Southwest Baptist tied it up at 6-6 prompting the Hawks to grab five of the next seven points and an 11-8 advantage. 

SBU hung around, narrowing the gap to one at 16-15 and answering a four-point run from Quincy in response with a six-point run of its own to lead down the stretch 21-20 over the Hawks.A kill from Brianna Merkel tied it at 21-21 before Southwest Baptist took the final four points of the frame for a 25-21 win. 

Set Three: 

QU responded in a big way in the third set with a five-point run down 2-0 and a seven-point run up 6-4 to lead big in the early stages of the third set 13-4. SBU took sive of the next seven to pull back within striking distance at 14-10, prompting three straight points of Quincy to replenish the lead to 17-10. 


The Bearcats pitched a late comeback effort, taking six of the last nine points of the set, but it was too little too late as the Hawks took a 2-1 lead in the match with a 25-20 win. 

Set Four: 

A kill from Wijnbergen and three from Beretti made it 4-0 Quincy to open the set. SBU got back into it later in the set, evening the score at 9-9 and even taking a three point lead at 17-14 just past the midpoint of the set. 

The Hawks fired back with a seven-point run to build a 20-17 advantage. The Bearcats didn't give up, finding another tie at 23-23. Quincy took advantage of an error to force match point before three straight Hawk errors gave SBU a 26-24 victory to force a fifth set. 

Set Five: 

Southwest Baptist looked poised to hand the Hawks their first loss in 49 days, jumping out to a 5-2 advantage in the 15-point fifth frame. SBU took an 8-5 lead into the change of sides, but only claimed a single point for the rest of the match. 

Quincy absolutely dominated down the stretch, taking 10 of the final 11 points, and the final eight straight to claim a 15-9 set win and 3-2 match victory. 

The Hawks are back in action next weekend, hosting the Hawks of Rockhurst University on Friday (Oct. 27) for a 6:00 PM battle of nationally ranked GLVC squads in Pepsi Arena.