THE LEAD
Returning to the Burg Center from the road after back-to-back losses, the Dallas Baptist Volleyball Team pulled out a thrilling victory defeating the St. Edward's Hilltoppers in five sets, 3-2. The Lady Patriots had a trio of match highs with Brooke Manley registering 20 kills, Kaycie Bird dishing out 29 assists, and Lauren Nicks with 37 digs. Manley's 20 kills were one shy away from tying her career high.

The two squads exchanged leads early in the first set, that is until the Lady Patriots were able to find an opportunity to make a run. Down 7-6 to the Hilltoppers, DBU rallied to score four straight points to take a 10-7 lead.  With a sizzling .412 hitting percentage in the set, Dallas Baptist would not relinquish the lead and go up by as many as seven points, winning the first set 25-19 and going up 1-0 in the set.

Falling behind early in set two, the Lady Patriots trailed the Hilltoppers 5-1. DBU made up the deficit by scoring seven of the next ten points to knot the set at eight apiece. A combination of kills and blocks by Carly Hess, Madeline Dolberry, and Cooper Martin would extend the Lady Patriots advantage to 17-11. The hot hitting percentage from the first set would cool in the second, as Dallas Baptist registered a .152 effort. The lack of scoring allowed the Hilltoppers to make a strong comeback, scoring eight of the final nine points to seal the set 25-22, tying up the match 1-1.

Going into the third set with the match tied, St. Edward's continued their momentum from the previous set jumping out to an early 7-3. Despite trailing Dallas Baptist kept their composure and put together two big point streaks to gain control of the set. The first of the two, five-point streaks were engineered with kills by Dolberry and Manley, giving the Lady Patriots an 8-7 lead. The second of the five point streaks were between Manley and Martin and handed DBU an even greater lead over SEU at 14-9. Dallas Baptist's consistent scoring was too much for St. Edward's, as DBU claimed set three 25-18 and gained a 2-1 advantage in the match.

No lead was safe for long in the fourth set of the evening as both teams battled late. With the score tied 23-23 after a Sidnee Jo Fitzpatrick kill, the Hilltoppers would respond by scoring three of the final four points to win the set in extra points 26-24 and tie the match 2-2.

In the fifth and final set of the night, St. Edward's looked to establish dominance, going up 7-3 in the first few possessions of play. Looking to defend their home court, the Lady Patriots made a great push that started with a Dolberry kill and multiple kills by Manley, giving Dallas Baptist a 10-9 lead. SEU would tie the set late off of a service error bringing the score to 12-12. To put the nail in the coffin, back-to-back kills by Martin and Dolbery put DBU up 14-12. The Hilltoppers took advantage of an attack error to hang around trialing 14-13, but that would be short lived after a thunderous kill by Hess downed the Hilltoppers 15-13, to give Dallas Baptist a 3-2 match win.

COACH'S QUOTE
"I'm proud of the team. It's not fun going to five, but at one point we had three starters out. With Brooke coming out that fourth set, that got us behind, but luckily she came back the fifth set and made an impact that we needed." - Coach Cathy Kokel

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
.412 Match high HItting percentage registered by DBU in the first set.
236  Number of total attacks registered by DBU to SEU's 235.
68    Number of assists registered by DBU to SEU's 51.
4      Number of Lady Patriots with double digit kills (Manley-20, Dolberry-15, Hess/Fitzpatrick-12). 
4      Number of Lady Patriots with double digit digs (Nicks-37, Bird-27, Manley-22, Hannah Ballew-16).

WHAT'S NEXT
The Lady Patriots will face the Midwestern State Mustangs in Wichita Falls on Saturday, October 3, 2015. The match is set to begin at 2:30 pm.