Volleyball Salvages Split on Final Day of Tournament

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College volleyball team was handed a tall task to open the second day of competition at the Illinois College Tournament. The Lady Blues fell in three sets to Olivet College – the lone team in the field of nine to end the weekend with an undefeated record – but came back in the final match of the tournament to defeat Concordia University (Chicago) in three sets. 

Now 4-7 on the season, the Lady Blues stay at home on Sept. 25 as they host a tri-match with Webster University and Iowa Wesleyan University. The day will begin at 3 p.m. with IC playing Webster, then Webster and Iowa Wesleyan will play the middle match at approximately 5 p.m. Iowa Wesleyan and IC will close the night out beginning at around 7 p.m.

Olivet College 3, Illinois College 0
(17-25, 15-25, 22-25)
All-Tournament selections Marissa Guile and Re'Gene Thompson led a highly-efficient Olivet attack as the Comets swept aside Illinois College in the first match of the day. Guile led all players in the match with 14 kills and OC turned in 38 kills against only 13 errors in the match to help get the sweep.

Olivet took the lead immediately in the first set over Illinois College, but it was in the middle stages of the set where the Comets truly took command. After losing a point for having the wrong player serving, the Lady Blues had the deficit trimmed to 14-9. Olivet took off from there though, carving out seven straight points for a 21-9 lead and a late IC rally couldn't get the team all the way back.

Illinois College maintained contact with Olivet to 4-4 in the second set before the Comets scored twice on attack errors from the Lady Blues. Ahead 9-7, OC rattled off four straight to go up by six and IC wouldn't get closer than three points the rest of the way. Guile ended the set with three straight kills to clinch it for Olivet.

Though Illinois College would lead early in the third set, the story remained unchanged as Olivet overtook the Lady Blues with five straight points to make it 8-3, then extended the lead to 14-4. After falling far behind, IC showed a lot of fight to cut the lead down to two points on three occasions, but the Comets got the important points when they needed them and held off the Illinois College charge.

Holly Crocher and Lisa Lowry each had nine kills to lead the Illinois College offense. Courtney Louveau had 17 assists and Allison Perkins had 16 digs for the Lady Blues.

Illinois College 3, Concordia University (Chicago) 0
(25-22, 26-24, 25-20)
The Lady Blues steamrolled the Cougars in the finale, ensuring that IC would get one win out of the weekend. Crocher was everywhere for Illinois College in the match, getting eight kills, three aces, two solo blocks and a pair of digs. 

Tied at 4-4 early on in the first set, Illinois College used back-to-back kills from Rebecca Shields to grab the lead and reel off six straight points for a 10-4 advantage. The Lady Blues maintained a comfortable lead all the way to set point, where they led 24-19. Suddenly, the Cougars came to life with three straight points that sliced the lead down to 24-22. IC called timeout and Shields got the kill on the next point to give the Lady Blues a 1-0 edge in the match.

The second set was even more of a nail-biter. Illinois College led by four points in the early going, 7-3, but Concordia battled back to take a four-point lead of its own at 17-13. The Cougar lead was still four at 21-17 when the Lady Blues pulled even on the strength of a pair of kills from Lowry to make it 21-21. Just when the momentum looked to be squarely on IC's side of the court, two kills from Austin Thompson of the Cougars sandwiched a serve from Olivia Friedrichs that clipped the tape and rolled over for an ace, giving Concordia a 24-21 lead and a set point. After a timeout, Friedrichs served into the net to make it 24-22. An attack error from Concordia followed and Lowry tied it at 24-24 with a kill. On serve, Mikayla Greenwood found just enough space to land the ball in for an ace, making it 25-24. With IC suddenly given a set point, Shields and Lowry blocked an attack from Nicoletta Crowley and the Lady Blues had a huge come-from-behind win.

In the third set, the lead swung back and forth all the way to 17-17 before a kill from Crocher and a Concordia attack error gave Illinois College a lead it would not relinquish. Eve Bahler had an ace in between a pair of kills from Lowry to extend out to a 22-18 lead and it was five points after Lowry had yet another kill. A service error from Concordia ended it to give IC the 25-20 win and the match.

Lowry ended the match with a team-high 11 kills, while Shields added 10. Louveau had a double-double with 19 assists and 14 digs. Perkins led three players who had double-digit digs with 18.