KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Austin Peay State University head volleyball coach Taylor Mott notched her 500th career victory as the Governors defeated Saint Louis in a hard-fought four sets (25-18, 24-26, 25-21, 26-24) Friday in the opening match of the Kansas City Klassic at the Swinney Center. Austin Peay dropped the nightcap to host Kansas City in four sets (25-22, 21-25, 18-25, 13-25) to level its record in the tournament.
Mott, who in her 12th season as APSU's head coach has 195 victories, reached the 500-win milestone in her 25th season and 815th match as a head coach after beginning her career with 13 seasons at Flagler College in Florida.
Austin Peay (7-5) battled through a nip-and-tuck match against Saint Louis (6-5) in the opener. The Govs won the opening set in wire-to-wire fashion before seeing two of the final three sets going into overtime. Saint Louis leveled the match by winning the second set, but had to fend off a late Austin Peay charge by scoring six of the final eight points to win 26-24.
The Billikens charged out the gate in the third set and led 6-1, but the Governors wrested away momentum with a 7-0 run. After a quick exchange of points, Austin Peay took control with a later 5-0 run to take a 19-12 lead that proved enough.
The fourth set had a similar start, with SLU taking a 6-2 lead. The Govs could not piece together a big run but slowly worked back to tie the set at 23-23. After Saint Louis scored to take a 24-23 lead, Austin Peay got back-to-back kills from Sarah Carnathan and Elizabeth Wheat to get to match point, and a SLU error provided that point for Mott's 500th win.
Austin Peay saw outside hitter Mikayla Powell provide 14 kills, three service aces. and three blocks in her return home. Outside hitters Sarah Carnathan set a career high with 10 kills and Elizabeth Wheat also supplied 10 kills. Middle blocker Karli Graham hit seven kills without an attack error and also had five blocks.
In the nightcap, Powell scored 21 kills – her fourth 20-kill outing this season – and provided six of those kills in Austin Peay's opening set victory. However, Kansas City (9-2) pulled away from the Govs the rest of the way, winning the third and fourth sets from start to finish.
In addition to Powell's outing against the Roos, Carnathan notched her second-straight 10-kill performance of the weekend.
Austin Peay closes out its Kansas City stay with an 11 a.m., Saturday match against Southeast Missouri. The Redhawks won their two Friday matches, defeating Kansas City in five sets and Saint Louis in four sets.
