By: A balanced offensive effort from the Lady Blues spurred the team to a dramatic four-set win on the road.
Box Score GRINNELL, Iowa — An impressive final two sets led the Illinois College women's volleyball team to victory Saturday over the Pioneers of Grinnell College. With the 3-1 win (27-25, 12-25, 28-26, 25-17), the Lady Blues move to 7-16 and the team closes out Midwest Conference play with a 4-6 record.
Both the Lady Blues and the Pioneers fought valiantly in the first set, with nine ties along the way. IC led by as many as five, 18-13, before Grinnell began to claw back. Knotted at 25-25, a kill by
Holly Crocher followed by a Grinnell setting error gave Illinois College the 27-25 win.
Grinnell turned the heat on in the second set, scoring seven straight from the service game of Sydney Vrecenar to go on top, 14-6. The lead only swelled from there, tying the match at 1-1 after the 25-12 Pioneer victory.
The Lady Blues showed their heart in the third set. Grinnell's Sydney McClendon had five service aces in a span of the match that turned a 15-10 Illinois College lead into a 20-15 deficit for the Lady Blues. Rather than folding from the difficult turn of events, IC raised its game. Grinnell had a set point with a 24-21 lead, but Illinois College ran off three straight points with two kills from
Courtney Louveau and one from
Erin Satterlee to tie the score at 24-24. Still level at 26-26, a
Lisa Lowry kill and Grinnell attack error moved the momentum squarely over to Illinois College with the 2-1 lead in the match.
In the fourth set, IC raced out to a 6-0 lead with Louveau, Crocher and Satterlee all supplying kills in the early going. Grinnell would not get any closer than four points the rest of the way, giving the Lady Blues the deciding set in a comfortable fashion.
Satterlee slammed a match-high 11 kills for IC while hitting at a .550 clip. Crocher added 10 kills. Both Lowry and Louveau nearly attained triple-doubles on the day. Louveau had 18 assists, 13 digs and nine kills, while Lowry had 14 assists, 10 digs and eight kills.
Illinois College wraps up the regular season next weekend with four matches at the Barker Chevrolet Volleyball Classic, hosted by Illinois Wesleyan. The Lady Blues will play IWU and Wisconsin Lutheran on Oct. 31, followed by Lakeland and Concordia (Wis.) on Nov. 1.
