By: Led by Lisa Lowry’s 37 kills in two matches, the Lady Blues defeated Webster University and Iowa Wesleyan University on Friday.
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Box Score 2 JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College volleyball team gave its home fans a treat on Friday night. In a pair of matches on Homecoming weekend, the Lady Blues scrapped and clawed their way to two five-set victories, first defeating Webster University and closing out the night by downing Iowa Wesleyan University.
The two wins improve the Lady Blues to 6-7 ahead of their Midwest Conference opener next week. Illinois College will be at Knox College at 7 p.m. on Sept. 30
Illinois College 3, Webster University 2
(23-25, 25-14, 27-25, 26-28, 15-9)In the first of three matches at Sherman Gymnasium on Friday, Illinois College was able to shrug off a 28-26 defeat in the fourth set in which the team had a match point and play its best in the fifth and deciding set to knock off Webster University. As a team, IC hit .175 for the match, but that figure was .526 in the fifth to earn the victory.
Lisa Lowry led four Lady Blues who notched double-figure kills in the match with 17 and
Courtney Louveau nearly doubled her previous career high in assists with 53 to lead the offense. Defensively,
Katie Tonry made a successful return to the court after missing time and had 20 digs while
Allison Perkins had 25.
Webster took a 1-0 lead in the first set despite a near-comeback from Illinois College. Trailing 24-19, Lowry had a kill that was followed by two Gorlok attack errors. Another kill from Lowry closed the Lady Blues within one at 24-23 before Webster was able to secure the victory.
It was a completely different story in the second set. A kill from
Holly Crocher made it 10-6 and gave Perkins the serve. By the time Webster could finally get a side-out, the lead had expanded to 19-7 and the Lady Blues cruised from there.
It looked like the momentum would carry over for IC in the third. The Lady Blues were ahead 20-12 before things took a scary turn. A combination of good serving and some Illinois College attack errors got Webster level at 22-22 and the Gorloks would eventually be a point away from the win at 24-22. Lowry got the Lady Blues back on serve however and a bad set from Webster made it 24-24. After again earning a set point, Crocher tied the third set at 25-25 and
MacKenzie Heinz gave IC a 26-25 lead. An attack error on set point put the Lady Blues ahead in the match, 2-1.
After racing ahead 4-0, it looked for a moment like Illinois College would have an easy go of it in the fourth. Instead, the set ended up being tied on 17 occasions before Webster somehow found a way to eke out a 28-26 win and send the match to a fifth set.
Despite falling behind 2-0 out of the gates in the fifth, three straight kills by Crocher eventually gave Illinois College a 6-3 lead. Once the Lady Blues had the lead, they only let the Gorloks within one point on one occasion and expanded the lead late. A kill from
Erin Satterlee put the finishing touches on a nice non-conference victory.
Crocher ended the match with 15 kills and hit .333. Satterlee added 11 kills (with five block assists) and
Mikayla Greenwood had 10.
Illinois College 3, Iowa Wesleyan 2
(25-17, 23-25, 20-25, 25-21, 15-13)After winning what was, on paper, the harder match of the two, Illinois College received a stern test from Iowa Wesleyan and had to battle back to win.
The Tigers were ahead 2-1 in the match and led the Lady Blues by three points late in the third set before IC went on a tear. Again the fifth set, Iowa Wesleyan took a 10-5 lead and it took a torrid stretch of play from IC to nab victory from defeat.
Lowry again was the team leader in kills, tying for match-high honors with 20. Louveau had 33 assists and Perkins led the Lady Blues with 28 digs.
Going ahead 4-0 in the first set, it seemed like Illinois College was on cruise control much of the way in the early going. After Iowa Wesleyan came back to knot the set at 16-16, Crocher served the Lady Blues to a 23-16 lead and IC was comfortable from there in securing a 1-0 edge in the match.
The lead wouldn't last long. Up by two as late in the second set as 20-18, Illinois College went cold when it mattered and Iowa Wesleyan took advantage. The final three points of the set all went to the Tigers and a 25-23 win evened the match at 1-1.
It got worse for IC in the third set. Though they went up 3-0 and still led comfortably at 17-13, Iowa Wesleyan rattled off five straight points to take a lead and the Lady Blues would never get ahead again, dropping a 25-20 decision to fall behind 2-1.
It was a gutsy effort in the fourth set that leveled the match again. Illinois College opened with a 5-0 lead, but failed to put the Tigers away and eventually trailed 20-17. Just when things were looking bleak, Iowa Wesleyan opened the door with four consecutive attack errors by Lexa Mahr that put the Lady Blues back ahead. A Lowry block and two Lowry kills followed to give IC a 24-20 lead and they held the Tigers off to knot it at 2-2 and take the match to a fifth set.
Iowa Wesleyan was undeterred in the fifth and a Mahr kill gave the Tigers a 10-5 lead. At 11-7,
Rebecca Shields got the Lady Blues back on serve with a kill and Perkins took over from there with an ace, followed by kills from Lowry and Louveau to square the proceedings at 11-11. Tied at 13-13, kills from Satterlee and Crocher sealed the deal and gave the Lady Blues a third straight win.
Crocher was the other IC player with double-digit kills, notching 10 for the match.
Eve Bahler had 14 assists in support of Louveau's play at setter. Lowry and Louveau each made it a double-double with 10 digs in addition to their other work and
Brenna Garland had 16 digs as well.
