By: Each player to see the floor had at least one kill for Illinois College on Wednesday night. IC romped over the Eagles, 3-0.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – A hard-nosed defense, an aggressive and accurate offense, a large and noisy crowd cheering on every point. The Illinois College volleyball team could get used to this. Buoyed by the fans inside Sherman Gymnasium, the Lady Blues posted a 3-0 (25-14, 25-21, 25-17) win over the Robert Morris University-Springfield Eagles on Wednesday night to start the 2015 season off with a 1-0 mark.
Led by the offense of
Holly Crocher – the senior middle blocker had 10 kills on only 13 attempts and didn't commit an error – the Lady Blues swarmed the Eagles in all aspects of the game. Junior
Lisa Lowry added eight kills for IC and freshman
Rebecca Shields had six in her collegiate debut. Defensively, senior
Allison Perkins led the way with 14 digs and freshman
Eve Bahler chipped in with 10 of her own. Their efforts as well as their teammates such as
Brenna Garland (eight digs) helped limit RMU-Springfield to a -.054 attacking percentage in the match.
In the first set, it was a series of small runs that allowed Illinois College to pull away for the early edge. Holding onto a 6-5 lead in the opening stages, a service error from the Eagles opened the door for a pair of kills from Bahler that sandwiched a kill from Shields to make it 10-5 and force a timeout from the RMU-Springfield bench. Another four-point outburst extended the lead to 14-6 and another one later in the set made it 22-12. A kill from Shields and a service error from the Eagles ended the set with the Lady Blues nabbing a 25-14 win.
Illinois College again was mostly in control of the second set, but RMU-Springfield battled to come from behind and knot the score at 5-5, 11-11 and 16-16. The Lady Blues finally took the lead for good after consecutive blocks that Crocher played a role in, first combining with
Courtney Louveau and later with Shields to make it 18-16. An ace from Louveau and a kill from Shields extended it out to a 20-16 lead and three consecutive attack errors from the Eagles ended the set 25-21 in favor of IC.
Though the third set stayed close early on, the wind had mostly gone from the RMU-Springfield sails. With Illinois College in front, 9-8,
Erin Satterlee got the Lady Blues back on serve with a kill and Lowry followed with one to make it 11-8. From there,
Katie Tonry took over. After missing almost all of last season, the junior was eager to make up for lost time and scored four straight points for IC on three aces and a kill to extend out to a 15-8 advantage. From there, the Eagles could get no closer than three points as the Lady Blues completed the sweep.
Illinois College will travel to Monmouth College on Sept. 5 for the Monmouth College Invitational. The Lady Blues play Lincoln Christian University at 9:30 a.m. and Principia College at 1:30 p.m. Based on the results of those two matches, IC will play an opponent to be determined at 5:30 p.m. to close it out.
