By: The Red Hawks defended their home court to snap IC’s seven-match winning streak on Friday night.
Box Score
RIPON, Wis. – After winning seven straight matches and 21 of the previous 22 sets, the Illinois College volleyball team finally hit a roadblock on Friday night as the Lady Blues dropped a four-set match to Ripon College (18-25, 21-25, 25-19, 20-25). Illinois College is now 12-7 (2-1 Midwest Conference) on the season, while Ripon moves to 13-6 (2-1 MWC).
In the first set, Ripon started out the match by scoring the first three points and then extending to a 7-2 lead. The Lady Blues made multiple pushes to get back into it, pulling within a point five times, the last of which came at 18-17. The Red Hawks recovered to win the next three and seven of the last eight, however, taking the first set 25-18.
Illinois College got off to a nice start in the second set with two
Katie Tonry aces and the Lady Blues maintained a lead through the midway point of the set. A
Rebecca Shields kill made it 16-15 in favor of IC, but Ripon responded with four straight points and the closest that the Lady Blues would get after that was two points as the Red Hawks took a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Lady Blues came out strong in the third set with a 3-0 lead. After Ripon rallied and tied the match at 11-11, IC received two kills from
Lisa Lowry and one from
Elizabeth Ganley to take a 14-11 lead. They wouldn't allow Ripon to catch up the rest of the way. The Red Hawks brought it within one point four times after that, but Illinois College always had the answer. Down the stretch, Lowry had two kills and assisted on a pair of blocks to lift IC to the 25-19 win and bring the match closer at 2-1.
The fourth set proved to be a set of runs. Ripon bolted out of the gates with seven straight points before an
Ali Pankey kill finally got the Lady Blues on the board. The lead peaked at 10-2 for the Red Hawks and was still at 12-6 before five straight points from IC, two on aces from Shields, brought the Lady Blues back to within one. With the score 13-11, Pankey and Lowry each had two kills in a six-point stretch that made it 17-13. Ripon found a way to recover however, notching 12 of the final 15 points in the match for the 25-20 victory.
Lowry led all players in the match with 17 kills and she added a team-high three block assists as well. Pankey had 14 kills and hit at a team-best. 462 clip.
Cheyanne Jockisch collected 16 digs in the match and
Elizabeth Ganley had a double-double with 43 assists and 12 digs.
Illinois College concludes its weekend on the road with a match at St. Norbert on Oct. 8. The Lady Blues and Green Knights will battle beginning at 1 p.m.
