By: The IC volleyball team ended its home tournament with a 2-2 record, highlighted by a three-set victory over MacMurray in the finale.
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JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College volleyball team impressed on Saturday with a nail-biting four-set loss to powerful NAIA program Missouri Valley College before ending the weekend with a three-set stomping of crosstown rivals MacMurray College. The Lady Blues close the opening weekend of the season at 2-2. Freshman setter
Elizabeth Ganley was the Illinois College representative on the all-tournament team.
Illinois College will have three more home matches in short order, facing RMU-Springfield on Wednesday night at 7 p.m., then hosting North Park University and Webster University on Friday at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m.
Missouri Valley 3, Illinois College 1
(25-22, 21-25, 25-27, 15-25)
Facing an opponent who had eight matches to its credit against just two for Illinois College, the Lady Blues were the aggressor early on, taking the opening set from the Vikings. The next two sets were evenly-played, but Missouri Valley was able to grab the momentum with a 27-25 win in the third set and they swarmed the Lady Blues in the fourth set for the win.
Illinois College started out hot in the first set as
Rebecca Shields and
Lisa Lowry each provided four kills in a 25-22 victory. The set was tied at 21-21 until Shields gave IC the lead.
Maddie Ramsey and
Elizabeth Ganley then teamed up for a block and a 23-21 lead. The score was 24-22 when Ganley set Shields up for another kill to clinch the opening frame.
Missouri Valley came back strong for much of the second set, leading 20-13 and looking to cruise the rest of the way. After
Courtney Louveau came on as a substitute, the tide turned in Illinois College's favor. The senior had three aces in quick succession and kept the Vikings off balance, bringing the Lady Blues all the way back to 20-19. Missouri Valley was finally able to earn the side-out however, and the Vikings then held on to win by a score of 25-21.
The Lady Blues fell behind in the third set and trailed much of the way, only to surge in the late stages. Down 18-15, IC came back to tie the score at 20-20 and then earned a set point with a 24-23 lead. Unfortunately, the Vikings were able to stay alive on a pair of attack errors from Illinois College and eventually survive by a score of 27-25.
The third-set loss seemed to drain the energy out of the Lady Blues. The score was tied at 5-5, but Missouri Valley reeled off 10 straight points to essentially seal the match.
Lowry ended the match with a double-double of 11 kills and 15 digs. The senior also added three block assists. Shields had 10 kills and three aces. Ganley handed out 29 assists and had six digs.
Madie Budd led the defense with 20 digs,
Brenna Garland had 11 and
Katie Tonry added 10.
Illinois College 3, MacMurray 0
(25-16, 25-11, 25-6)
Facing MacMurray for the first of two times this season, Illinois College outclassed the Highlanders from early on in the match.
Ali Pankey ended with 10 kills and a .500 hitting percentage. Ganley had a double-double of 30 assists and 13 digs. Budd and
Cheyanne Jockisch each added 12 digs apiece.
In the first set, the Lady Blues led 7-5 until a six-point run gave them a large cushion.
MacKenzie Heinz had two kills in that span to held Illinois College gain control. The Highlanders would only get as close as six points the rest of the way.
Garland set the tone in the second set with her serve, recording six aces against MacMurray. After a Pankey kill gave IC an 11-7 lead, Garland took over on serve. The Highlanders wouldn't get the ball back until the lead had ballooned to 20-7.
Attacking errors eliminated any Highlander hopes of a comeback in the third set. MacMurray had only three kills and committed eight errors. Meanwhile, Illinois College had 11 kills and only one error. Heinz, Louveau, Pankey, Ramsey and Shields each had two kills apiece in the set to pace a balanced IC offense.
