Oct. 10, 2009 – Freshman Megan Sharpe had 19 kills, and the No. 21 Truman volleyball team rallied from a 12-9 deficit in the fifth set to take the next six points and upset 15th-ranked Nebraska-Omaha, 3-2 (-23, -23, 20-25, 17-25, 15-12), in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday night. The win marked the second straight season that Truman has left Omaha with a five-set victory in hand.
Sharpe’s 19 kills were a match-high, while both Lauren Graybeal (13) and Allison Barker (11) finished in double-figures. Graybeal and Sharpe each picked up five block assists on the evening with Barker adding 12 digs for a kill-dig double-double.
The Bulldogs (16-8, 4-4 MIAA) jumped ahead of a ranked foe, 2-0, for the second straight match and appeared to be headed down a similar path as Wednesday night’s heartbreaking five-set loss to No. 4 Central Missouri when UNO (17-5, 7-2 MIAA) bounced back with third- and fourth-set wins to force a deciding frame.
However, after the host Mavs built a three-point lead at 12-9 in the final frame, Truman exploded out a timeout to score the final six points of the match and move back to .500 in league play. Sharpe had her hand in five of those final six points, tallying three kills and a pair of block assists with Graybeal before sophomore Molly Sinclair served an ace to end the match.
"That was a great win for us both in the conference and regionally, because UNO is a very tough play to go in and win," head coach Ben Briney said.
All three of Truman’s setters – junior Ashley Petak (27), sophomore Kylie Easlon (13) and senior Krysta Tholen (11) – saw significant action in the match, with Petak digging 17 UNO attacks for an assist-dig double-double. Fresh off a 40-dig outing on Wednesday, junior libero Casey Bruno backed up her performance with a team-high 24 digs on Saturday night.
The Bulldogs will have the next five days off before hosting Northwest Missouri and Missouri Western on back-to-back nights in Kirksville. Both matches will begin at 7 pm, as Saturday night’s match will also denote the mid-point of the conference slate, with the second half of home-and-home matches beginning next Wednesday night (Oct. 21).