After a dominant month of October, the Mavericks continued their winning ways into November as they won their third match in a row after defeating Kansas City 3-1 Thursday night in Baxter Arena. Omaha has now swept the season series against Kansas City after taking their previous match 3-0 back in October.
Improving to 16-8 with an 11-3 conference record, the Mavericks retake second place in the Summit League with just four matches to go. Meanwhile, the Roos' playoff hopes took a hit as they remain in eighth place after dropping to 7-19 overall and 4-9 in league play.
Set by Set (26-24, 23-25, 25-22, 25-15)
- The Mavericks found themselves in an early hole to begin the day as the Roos quickly established a 13-3 lead in set one. After a 9-0 Kansas City scoring run, Omaha started to pick up some momentum thanks to a pair of kills from Rachel Fairbanks, but the Roos came right back and made it 17-7. Finally, trailing 18-9, the Mavericks went on a huge tear, scoring seven in a row including two kills each from Marriah Buss and McKenna Ruch, as well as a kill and two blocks from Kali Jurgensmeier. Later, with Kansas City up 24-21 and at match point, Omaha went on one more big run with five unanswered points, including back-to-back kills from Mariah Murdie, to complete the comeback and take set one.
- Kansas City again came out strong early as they opened set two with a 10-5 lead. Like in set one, however, the Mavericks were not done yet as they outscored the Roos 15-10 over the next 25 points to tie the set at 20-20, getting key kills from Buss and Ruch along with five Kansas City errors. Unlike set one, though, it would be Kansas City who would rally late to tie up the match at 1-1.
- Set three was the closest yet as both teams remained deadlocked for almost the entire duration. After initially starting off at 1-1, the score would be tied 12 more times all the way up to 17-17. Along the way, Shayla McCormick notched three kills, a block, and an ace, while Ruch added another four kills as well. A pair of Roos' errors would give Omaha the lead for good as the Mavericks capitalized on their mistakes with McCormick, Fairbanks, and Jurgensmeier each getting two more kills apiece to close out the set.
- After a back and forth beginning to set four, culminating in an 11-11 score, things took a sharp turn in Omaha's favor as the Mavericks fired off an incredible 10 straight points to completely blow things wide open. Jurgensmeier was the centerpiece of this run, recording four kills and two blocks. From there, Omaha cruised to victory as McCormick capped off the day with one final kill.
- Despite some close calls, the Mavericks finished with strong leads in kills (63-44), assists (58-41), digs (79-75), and hitting percentage (.204-.111).
- For the first time this season, five Mavericks - Ruch (15), Fairbanks (11), Buss (11), Jurgensmeier (11), and McCormick (10) - recorded at least 10 kills in a single match.
- McCormick also set a new career-high with 22 digs tonight, while also picking up her 14th double-double of the season.
- Fairbanks has now had double-digit kills in back-to-back matches for the first time this season.
- Buss and Jurgensmeier both passed major milestones tonight, with Buss scoring her 300th kill of the season and Jurgensmeier her 200th.
- Sami Clarkson continued to make history as she became just the third Mavericks ever to reach 4000 assists with her fifth assist of the day back in set one. She also recorded 11 digs along with her 31 assists to earn her sixth double-double of the year.
Original source can be found here.
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