SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- No. 19-ranked Indiana Wesleyan University played right with No. 6-ranked Missouri Baptist for much of the match on Tuesday night in the first match of Pool F at the 2014 NAIA Volleyball National Championship held at Tyson Event Center in Sioux City, Iowa.

Indiana Wesleyan (33-8) defeated the top team in the pool in the first set by a score of 25-20. But Missouri Baptist won the next three sets by scores of 25-18, 25-20, 25-18 to win the match 3-1.

“I am glad that we played the top team first,” said Indiana Wesleyan head coach Candace Moats. “Now we have experienced it out here with some positive play. Now we know we can do this because this was the top team in the pool and we were playing with them.”

In the first set Indiana Wesleyan scored five of the first six points for the early advantage. Missouri Baptist stormed back to with 8 of the next 11 points to take a 9-8 lead. Indiana Wesleyan responded with the next 3 points to lead 11-9 and did not trail the rest of the set. IWU claimed the first set victory with a block by Morgan Miller (FR/Goshen, Ind.) and Remy Bucknor (SO/Euless, Texas) for the 25-20 victory. The five point win was the largest lead of the set for Indiana Wesleyan.

“It was exciting,” Moats said about winning the first set. “I felt we had a strategy and we were ready and energized. We played aggressive and did our plan. It was fun. You always want to come out and prove yourself. And that is what winning that set felt like for us. We wanted to show that we are here and to make a statement.”

Missouri Baptist (35-3) claimed a big lead to begin the second set with an 8-3 advantage and that lead increased to 15-7. Indiana Wesleyan scored five of the next six points to force a Missouri Baptist time out at 16-12. IWU got as close as three points at 18-15 before Missouri Baptist scored the next three points and eventually tied the match with a 25-18 win in set two.

In the third set, the Spartans again took the early lead with four of the first five points. The Wildcats kept it close though and trailed 10-8. But the Spartans scored four straight points to lead by six at 14-8. Trailing 20-15, the Wildcats made one final push. IWU scored four of the next five points to close within two points at 21-19. The teams traded points for a 22-20 score before the Spartans scored the final three points for the 25-20 victory.

Missouri Baptist held a slim 6-5 lead to begin the fourth set but used a 12-5 run to build an 18-10 lead. Indiana Wesleyan attempted to chip away at the large deficit and closed the gap to four points at 22-18. But Missouri Baptist called a timeout and scored the next three points for the 25-18 victory.

Remy Bucknor led Indiana Wesleyan with 12 kills, a .360 hitting percentage, and 3 block assists while Bianca Cifaldi (SO/Itasca, Ill.) added 10 kills. Katey Holler (JR/Marion, Ohio) finished with 19 assists and Emily Workman (FR/Tinley Park, Ill.) contributed 18 assists. Ashlen Buck (SO/Brazil, Ind.) and Banner Rodgers (FR/Carrollton, Texas) each earned 12 digs for the Wildcats.

Indiana Wesleyan has two remaining matches in Pool F against No. 7-ranked Northwestern (Iowa) and No. 18-ranked Jamestown (N.D.).

“We watched Northwestern and Jamestown today,” stated Moats. “Now we just need to go after it. I feel pretty positive about it. This was a good warm-up for us and we are going to go out there and get after it.”

Indiana Wesleyan plays Northwestern at 6:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday and finishes pool play at 9 p.m. ET on Thursday. The top two teams from each of the six pools advance to the 12-team tournament bracket on Friday.