Lady Blues Roll Past Anderson, Earlham

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College volleyball team continued its great play of late, downing Anderson University and Earlham College in three sets each on Saturday to complete a perfect 4-0 weekend at the IC Volleyball Tournament and notch the team's fifth straight win overall. The Lady Blues enter Midwest Conference play with a record of 10-6.

For their outstanding weekends, both freshman setter Elizabeth Ganley and senior middle blocker Lisa Lowry were named to the All-Tournament Team. The other members of the All-Tournament Team were Melissa Costa (RMU-Springfield), Laura Dulee (Monmouth), Emily Tippetts (Principia) and Megan Wade (Anderson).

The Lady Blues remain at home this week, hosting Knox College in the MWC opener for both teams on Thursday night at 7 p.m. IC will also play host to Lawrence University on Saturday at 11 a.m. 

Illinois College 3, Anderson 0
(25-21, 25-19, 26-24)
The Lady Blues put an exclamation point on their victory over Anderson by storming back from 24-20 down in the third set to score six straight points and seal the sweep of the Ravens.

A series of three- and four-points bursts by the Lady Blues kept them comfortably ahead throughout the first set and two kills by Ali Pankey gave Illinois College multiple set points with a 24-17 lead. Though Anderson rallied with four straight points to make it 24-21, Pankey had the set-winning kill to give IC a 1-0 advantage in the match.

In the second set, Anderson took a quick 2-0 lead but Illinois College responded with seven straight on the serve of Cheyanne Jockisch and stretched the lead to 11-3 with Brenna Garland serving. The lead peaked at 16-6 before the Ravens began to rally, closing within three points on three occasions. The Illinois College cushion proved to be too much however, and kills from Rebecca Shields and Maddie Ramsey closed out the set.

Anderson and Illinois College played each other neck-and-neck throughout the third set, tying each other on 17 occasions and leaving the score tied at 19-19. A sudden run from the Ravens that included a pair of IC attack errors allowed them to pull ahead however, 24-20, and a fourth set seemed imminent. Suddenly everything went wrong for the Anderson offense. An attack error allowed the Lady Blues to get back on serve and with Katie Tonry serving for IC, the team rattled off five more points in a row to grab the victory. Of those final six points, five came on attack errors from Anderson and the other was a kill by Pankey.

Lowry ended with a team-high 12 kills in the match, while MacKenzie Heinz and Shields each ended with eight apiece. Ganley had four kills and 33 assists. Defensively, Garland had 18 digs, Jockisch had 12 and Tonry added 11.

Illinois College 3, Earlham 0
(29-27, 25-20, 25-16)
After surviving an ugly first set in which they won despite a negative hitting percentage, the Lady Blues pulled it together and were able to sweep Earlham to conclude the weekend. Illinois College ended the tournament winning 12 out of 13 sets, and have won 15 out of its past 16 sets going back to a mid-week sweep of Blackburn.

Earlham raced out to a 6-0 lead in the first set thanks in part to four IC attack errors. The Lady Blues rallied to win eight out of the next nine points for an 8-7 lead, but the set stayed tight throughout. With IC ahead, 24-22, Skyler Muckway slammed three straight kills to put Earlham on top, 25-24, and earn the Quakers their first set point. The Lady Blues recovered to take a 26-25 lead on a pair of tip kills by Ramsey, but another Muckway kill and an IC attack error gave Earlham another set point at 27-26. Illinois College was given a lifeline when Quaker setter Lauren Jackson was called for a ball-handling error, and two more errors by Earlham allowed IC to escape with a hard-fought win.

Midway through the second set, IC's lead on Earlham was only two points at 14-12, but Lowry had a pair of kills and the Quakers committed a pair of attack errors to allow the Lady Blues to expand it to an 18-12 edge. An ace from Tonry made it 24-18 and Earlham could only fight off two set points before an ace on serve gave Illinois College a 2-0 lead in the match.

Tied at 7-7 in the third set, the Lady Blues reeled off eight straight points including three kills from Pankey to take a 15-7 lead. Earlham closed to within three points on four occasions, but seven of the last eight points went to Illinois College as they cruised down the stretch to close it out.

Lowry ended with a match-high 15 kills for IC. Ganley had 29 assists and seven digs. Garland had 17 digs in the match, while Jockisch joined her in double-figures with 11.