JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – Heading into Friday's Midwest Conference Tournament semifinals, let there be no doubt who the hottest team in the MWC is. The Illinois College volleyball team overwhelmed Webster University, 3-0 (25-15, 25-15, 25-19), on Tuesday night, to end the season with a record of 22-6. The win was the seventh straight for the Lady Blues, who wrap up their home schedule with a perfect record of 9-0, dropping only a single set along the way.
Illinois College jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the first set behind three early kills from
Ali Pankey. Webster would get as close as four points on just one occasion before the Lady Blues were off again, stretching their lead out to 20-13 and forcing the Gorloks into their second and final timeout.
Maddie Ramsey had another kill out of the timeout to make it 21-13. After Webster scored two in a row, Ramsey had two kills in the closing stretch as IC rattled off four straight points for the 25-15 victory in the opening set.
After a kill from
MacKenzie Heinz to open the second set, Webster was able to tie the score on only two occasions. With the score at 3-3, Pankey had a kill and followed that up with a block that was assisted by Ramsey to make it 5-3. The Lady Blues would never trail, enjoying a comfortable working margin throughout the set as they hit a match-high .333 as a team.
Brenna Dameris had a pair of kills late in the set as IC again recorded a 25-15 win to take a 2-0 lead.
As was the case in the first two sets, Illinois College bolted out again in the third, but this time Webster was able to make it a fight. After the Lady Blues took an 11-4 edge following three kills in rapid succession from Ramsey, the Gorloks began to work their way back into it. Webster got as close as two points, 16-14, when a Pankey shot down the line was dubiously called out. The 50/50 call that went the visitor's way seemed to awaken the Lady Blues however, and they restored order by scoring the next two points. Heinz had two straight kills to make it 23-17 and the final two points of the match belonged to
Rebecca Shields.
Ramsey had 13 kills and an amazing .565 hitting percentage for the night to lead the IC offense. Dameris slammed down 12 kills and Pankey joined her with 12 kills along with a team-high 15 digs. Fresh off her third weekly MWC award of the season,
Elizabeth Ganley notched 44 assists and six digs.
Madie Budd had 14 digs in the back row and
Brooke Brandis added 10.
The Lady Blues take the No. 4 seed into the MWC Tournament this weekend at Cornell College. IC will face the No. 1-seeded Rams on Friday night at 7 p.m. following the first semifinal between Grinnell College and St. Norbert College. With a win, Illinois College would move into the championship match on Saturday at 1 p.m.
