Men's soccer and volleyball capture important playoff victories

Conor Nicholl

Both volleyball and men’s soccer delivered in the clutch Thursday night.

Both squads needed a win – badly. Men’s soccer had to win to keep their season going, as they played Rockhurst University in the first round of the NCAA postseason tournament.

Volleyball, facing No. 13 ranked Central Missouri State University, needed a victory to reclaim some confidence after losing to University of North Alabama this past weekend.

And both squads delivered.

With soccer, it was a showdown between two nearly identical teams (both squads had a +41 goal differential for the season) who felt they could both win Thursday’s match. Both teams entered the season with expectations of winning the region and advancing to the Elite Eight.

The 10 last matches, including a 1-0 Bulldog victory this season over Rockhurst in Kansas City, the away team had won.

Thursday night posed a different challenge, as SIUE is a neutral site field and is about equal between KC and Kirksville.

“We’re going to finally see who the best team is,” head coach Duke Cochran said Monday afternoon.

The ’Dogs didn’t have their best offensive effort, as the Hawks had more corner kicks (17-3) and more shots (14-5), but the staples that had led the purple and white the enter year kept their season alive.

With junior goalie Nate Gibson and Co. anchoring the back line and senior forward Marty Clayes providing the offensive spark with the only goal of the match – after a dead ball foul that resulted in a penalty kick – the ’Dogs won 1-0.

Entering the match, Cochran said the most important player to contain wasn’t Great Lakes Conference Player of the Year Haggai Leboo. Instead, he said Monday they were more focused on Cody Anderson, a dangerous playmaker for the Hawks.

Anderson only had one shot on goal in Thursday’s contest, while Leboo, a precocious freshman who entered the match with 19 goals and 43 points, had only three shots. None of them were on goal.

And none of them found the back of the net.

Again, as been the case, over the past two months, the ’Dogs have found a way to stop the opposition and score that one critical goal. Lewis, Gannon, and both Rockhurst matches were all must-wins. And the ’Dogs, led by their defense and Clayes, won all four matches 1-0. Now, they advance to the Sweet 16 Saturday night against SIUE.

Volleyball needed a victory against a quality opponent. They hadn’t beaten a quality, playoff-bound team in over a month, as Central Missouri State University, Washburn University, Emporia State University had all beaten the ’Dogs in a recent matches.

Overall, entering last night, the purple and white were 27-5 on the season, but in games against potential South Central Regional playoff foes, the purple and white had a 3-5 record and 0-5 in their last five.

They needed this win for a confidence boost. They needed this win to reassert their dominance as one of – if not the best – team in the country. And they did – winning the two games and then absolutely throttling the Jennies 30-12 in the final set.

Junior outside hitter and MIAA MVP Kelsey Wackerman enjoyed another triple-double, junior outside hitter Sarah Shearman played well and senior middle hitter Tiffany Graham had 12 kills, no errors and hit .600.

Graham, like Micaela Walter last year, could be the difference for the ’Dogs. Every bona fide national contender needs at least three terrific attackers. Strong defenses like Washburn (who leads the country in opponents’ attacking percentage) can’t contain three different attackers – especially one from the middle.

If Graham, a forgotten player for most of the year, continues to step up like she did Thursday, the ’Dogs could enjoy another huge victory against Washburn on Saturday night in the MIAA Conference Tournament Final and gain even more confidence entering the South Central Regional.