WICHITA, Kan. -- Ali Tauchen led a solid Griffon offense with 18 kills and a .441 hitting percentage at Newman on Saturday afternoon, but uncharacteristic struggles from the service line - 14 service errors to just eight aces - derailed Missouri Western's plans in a 3-2 (25-19, 14-25, 27-29, 25-15, 15-10) loss. Tauchen moved into third place on the career kills list for Missouri Western with 1193.
The Griffons battled back from a 7-3 deficit to tie the first set at 16-16 courtesy of a Hailey Crane service ace, but couldn't sustain the momentum as Crane handed the lead back to the Jets at 17-16 with a service error.
Momentum was never a concern in the second set, however, as Missouri Western led wire-to-wire. Crane appeared to be unruffled by her first set serving error, firing four aces in the second set including three straight in a 5-0 run to give the Griffons an 18-9 lead.
As much as the second set was all Missouri Western, the third set was a back-and-forth battle with 13 ties and five lead changes, which needed extra points to separate the teams. Back-to-back kills by Allie Kerns fought off a set point at 27-26 then gave MWSU a 28-27 set point opportunity of its own. Libero Jessica Sachen finished off the set with a service ace.
After dropping the fourth set 25-15, Missouri Western came out strong in the fifth set, but a pair of hotly-disputed calls by the second referee were pivotal to the outcome of the match. With the set tied at 5-5, Kerns thought she had put the Griffons up 6-5 with a cross court shot off the Newman block that landed out of bounds. MWSU's celebrations quickly turned to shouts of frustration as the point was signaled for Newman.
Slightly rattled by the missed call, Kerns put her next swing into the net, prompting head coach Marian Carbin to call a timeout. After a bit of confusion with a substitution saw a yellow card shown to the Griffons for a delay sanction, Danielle Moje combined with Kerns to stuff the Newman attack and pull MWSU within 7-6.
On the next rally, Missouri Western was able to get the Jets working slightly out of system and Riley Daugherty tried to salvage a cross-court bump set from Jenna DeVore. As Daugherty was falling backward her attack appeared to cross the net well outside the antenna, but second referee Tracey Harrison ignored the line judge's signal and allowed the rally to continue. Newman was able to salvage a kill to take an 8-6 lead and run out 15-10 winners.
Missouri Western returns to the court on Tuesday night with a rematch at Northwest Missouri State. First serve from Maryville is set for 7 p.m.