PELLA, Iowa (Nov. 1, 2023) - The Buena Vista volleyball team closed out its season on Wednesday night with a hard-fought 3-0 American Rivers Conference road loss at Central College (21-8, 4-4 A-R-C) by scores of 25-21, 25-14, 31-29.

Senior Molly McCauley led the Beavers with 10 kills and seven digs in what was the final match of her career. Fellow senior Rachel Brockney was right behind with seven kills and seven digs while senior Skylar Cole and freshman Hope Vanderlinden tacked on four kills apiece. Brockney finishes her career ranked seventh on the program's all-time kills chart with 728.

First-years Jilly Janssen and Grace Coble dished out 13 and 10 assists, respectively, as the Beavers tallied 31 kills overall. Janssen also added seven digs and a pair of ace serves. Senior Molly Bense also closed out her career and led the charge, defensively, with a team-high 12 digs. 

Both teams started strong in the opening set with the Beavers holding an 8-5 advantage. The Dutch then took control with an 8-0 to go in front 13-8 and continued to lead at 17-14 before they began pulling away after rolling off four straight for a 21-14 lead and eventually went on to win by four.

BVU again came out and grabbed the early lead at 4-2, but it was again the Dutch mounting a run of 7-1 to move in front at 9-5 before using an 8-1 surge to break open the set at 19-9.

The third set was much of the same as both teams went back-and-forth out of the gate before McCauley had three kills during a key 5-0 spurt that gave the Beavers a 14-9 cushion. Just like they did in the first two, the Dutch had another big run of their own, using a 7-0 stretch to regain a 16-14 lead. BVU pulled even at 17-17 after a kill by Brockney and an ace serve from Bense before it looked like Central was going to close out the match after going in front 23-19. A service error by the Dutch, however, helped ignite a big 5-0 run that pushed BVU within a point of forcing a fourth set. From there it was back-and-forth with the Dutch facing match-point on four different occasions only to have the Beavers pull even. With the score tied at 29-29 following the final kill from McCauley, the Dutch would get back-to-back kills of their own to complete the sweep.

Buena Vista wraps up the season at 6-18 overall (0-8 A-R-C).