JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College volleyball team capped an exciting opening weekend with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-13) win over crosstown rival MacMurray College on Saturday morning inside Sherman Gymnasium. The Lady Blues move to 3-0 early on in the year and will face their first road tests next weekend in a tournament co-hosted by Central College and Grinnell College.
An early five-point run from the Lady Blues extended a 3-2 lead to 8-2 in the first set.
Maddie Ramsey had two kills in that span, forcing a timeout from MacMurray to try to limit the damage. Later on in the set, a pair of
Brenna Dameris kills opened up IC's first double-digit lead of the day at 15-5. The Highlanders tried to rally and were able to close within six points on two occasions, but the lead was too much to overcome and
Ali Pankey closed out the set with a kill to make it 25-17.
MacMurray came out stronger in the second set, but the Lady Blues kept it close and tied the set at 5-5 on a Pankey kill from
Elizabeth Ganley.
Cheyanne Jockisch then subbed into the match and IC scored five straight points on her serve to make it 10-5. The teams then traded blows the remainder of the set. Illinois College never went up by more than six points, but the Highlanders never pulled any closer than three points. A pair of MacMurray errors in the closing stretch allowed IC to go up 2-0 in the match as a ball-handling error made it 24-20 and a service error closed it out with IC ahead, 25-21.
Brooke Brandis collected a pair of service aces early in the third set to put Illinois College up, 4-0. MacMurray rallied back and tied the set at 9-9 and again at 10-10 before IC reeled off four straight points to again regain control. Though MacMurray earned a side-out to take the serve away from
Rebecca Shields, the Lady Blues then torched the visitors with a nine-point run to open up a 23-11 cushion. Pankey and Ramsey each had four kills in that stretch. Pankey added one more kill to give IC a match point at 24-12 and Dameris ended it at 25-13.
Ramsey was absolutely unstoppable on the morning, recording 16 kills on 22 attempts and hitting at a .682 clip. Pankey led the Lady Blues with 17 kills. Dameris added nine of her own. Madie Budd paced the defense with 13 digs and Jockisch added 11. Ganley ended the match with 42 assists.
Next week will take Illinois College on a tour of the Hawkeye State as the Lady Blues take on Bethany Lutheran College and Buena Vista University on Sept. 7 at Grinnell College. The next day, IC faces Central College and Crown College in Pella, Iowa at the home of the Central Dutch.
