Harding vs. Southwest Baptist

Harding: Mollie Arnold – season-high 26 kills and 19 digs

Harding: Taryn Eubank – 50 assists and 17 digs

Harding: Lisa Copeland – 29 digs

Harding: season-high 110 digs

Southwest Baptist: Jordan Nedbalek 17 kills and 11 blocks

Southwest Baptist: 21.5 team blocks

Harding vs. Emporia State
Harding: Alyssa Short – 10 kills
Harding: Lisa Copeland – 17 digs
Emporia State: Paige Vanderpool – 13 kills and 13 digs
Emporia State: Kelly Holden – 14 digs

JOPLIN, Mo. – The Harding volleyball team opened the Missouri Southern State Tournament with a 3-2 win over Southwest Baptist and a 3-0 loss to Emporia State on Friday. The Lady Bisons move to 16-6 overall.

The loss snapped an eight match winning streak.

In the first match against Southwest Baptist, Harding took the first set 25-21 as they forced Southwest Baptist to 10 attack errors. SBU had six of their 21.5 team blocks in the first set. It was the most blocks by an HU opponent this season.

The Bearcats took the second set 25-23 to tie the match 1-1. Senior outside hitter Mollie Arnold had three straight kills to end the third set as HU won 27-25.

Despite a 4-0 run to pull within two in the final points of the fourth set, HU fell 25-23.

With the fifth set tied at 12, HU went on a 3-0 run as a service aces by Arnold gave HU the victory.

Arnold led HU with a season-high 26 kills. She also had 19 digs. Junior setter Taryn Eubank had 50 assists for the second time this season and 17 digs.

Lisa Copeland led the HU defense with 29 digs and senior middle blocker Alyssa Short had nine blocks.

Harding had a season-high 110 digs in the match as five different Lady Bisons had 10 or more digs. The two other HU players were redshirt freshman Bianca Trevino who had a career-high 16 digs and sophomore defensive specialist Shelby Daniel had 14.

Southwest Baptist (11-6) was led by Jordan Nedbalek who had 17 kills and 11 blocks. As a team, SBU had 99 digs.

In the second match against Emporia State, the first set was tied at 24 but the Hornets had back-to-back kills to take the set 26-24.

ESU jumped out to a 12-6 lead in the second set but HU battled back and got within one 16-15 on a service ace by Arnold. Emporia State took a 20-15 lead on a 4-0 run but HU answered back and cut the lead to one, 22-21, on a 3-0 run on two ESU errors. The Hornets took the set on a 3-0 run as they forced two HU attack errors.

Harding kept the third set close until ESU forced four straight HU attack errors and took a 24-18 lead. At match point, HU went on a 4-0 run as they forced two attack errors and had two kills but a kill by ESU's Paige Vanderpool took the set and match.

Harding was led by Short who had 10 kills. Copeland had 17 digs for HU.

Vanderpool led Emporia State (10-7) with 13 kills and 13 digs.

On Saturday, the Lady Bisons will face Northwest Missouri at 11 a.m., and then wrap up the tournament against No. 4 Central Missouri at 1 p.m.