By: For the second time in less than 24 hours, Illinois College came up on the short end of a 3-2 decision.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College volleyball team played in its fourth straight five-set match on Saturday afternoon in Sherman Gymnasium, unfortunately the Lady Blues fell for the third time in that span in a 3-2 loss (25-23, 22-25, 22-25, 25-19, 10-15) to Grinnell College. The Pioneers climb back to even in the Midwest Conference at 14-7 (3-3 MWC), sending IC to 9-13 (3-4 MWC) in the process.
The first set would be nearly a perfect microcosm for the match, with neither team establishing superiority and the lead changing on nearly every other serve. The difference for Illinois College was the three-headed attack of
Maddie Ramsey,
Kori Hayes and
Ali Pankey. Ramsey slammed down five kills in the set, while Hayes and Pankey had four apiece. That helped IC offset seven attack errors in the early going. With the score 23-23, Hayes' final kill put the Lady Blues on top and a block from
Elizabeth Ganley and
Rebecca Shields clinched it.
Four straight points for Illinois College in the second set put the Lady Blues up, 8-4. After a timeout, Grinnell reeled off four straight of its own to knot it at 8-8. Three straight for the Pioneers when the score was 11-11 put them up for good, with IC pulling within two points on four occasions but never getting any closer as GC evened the match.
Grinnell once again took a lead in the middle portion of the third set, but this time Illinois College rallied to tie the score at 17-17. It would then be tied at 18-18 and 20-20, before three straight from the Pioneers gave them control. IC got back within one on a Pankey kill and a block from Shields and Hayes, but Kaylin Kuhn supplied the final two kills as Grinnell took a 2-1 lead in the match.
The Pioneers looked to close things out in the fourth, taking a quick 5-1 advantage before the Lady Blues fought back. With the score 13-12 in favor of the visitors, IC notched six consecutive points which included kills from Pankey, Hayes and Ganley to take an 18-13 lead. The set was clinched by a Pankey kill to make it 24-19 and then an ace from Ganley.
Some bad luck played a part in Grinnell taking a quick lead in the fifth set. After a Pankey kill made it 1-0, Grinnell tied it on a ball that flew out but took a touch on the way through. On the next point, Madison Smith kept what should have been an IC kill alive with her shoulder and the ball flew over the net and landed to earn another Pioneer point. Then Ganley was put in a tough position on a set and was whistled for a ball-handling error. Down 3-1, the Lady Blues came back to tie the score at 4-4, but Grinnell then had two blocks in a row as part of a three-point run. Later on, Kuhn accounted for three straight kills to take a 14-9 lead in the set. Ramsey tried to keep the Lady Blues alive, but Emma Willhardt ended it with her 19th kill of the match.
Pankey ended the match with a game-high 21 kills and a game-high 27 digs. Ganley had 58 assists and 15 digs, while
Madie Budd added 25 digs.
Cheyanne Jockisch tacked on another 14 digs for IC, who ended with 94 as a team. Ramsey hit a team-high .342 with 16 kills and Hayes ended with 13 kills in the match. Shields did a little bit of everything for the Lady Blues with eight kills, two aces, four digs and five block assists.
Illinois College will be back at home on Oct. 18 for Senior Night against Blackburn College at 7 p.m.
