JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College volleyball team started off slowly in nearly every set on Friday night and the Lady Blues paid dearly for it in the fourth and fifth sets as St. Norbert College came back from a 2-1 deficit to defeat IC, 3-2 (25-22, 24-26, 25-22, 21-25, 6-15). The loss drops the Lady Blues to 11-4 (3-1 Midwest Conference) and keeps the Green Knights as one of the three undefeated teams in MWC play at 13-6 (3-0 MWC).
Each of the first four sets was fairly close, but Illinois College probably had its easiest go of it in the first set. After falling behind, 3-0, the Lady Blues came back to take a 6-4 lead and took most of the drama out of the set with a four-point spurt midway through to turn a 16-14 edge into a 20-14 cushion. With the score 24-19, St. Norbert turned in three straight points to make it interesting, but the set ended with a Green Knights ball-handling error.
St. Norbert responded back by scoring seven of the first eight points in the second set. Illinois College stormed back to take a 10-8 lead and later on would be within two points of a 2-0 lead at 23-21. Following a Green Knights timeout, St. Norbert would come back to tie it at 23-23. An
Ali Pankey kill made it 24-23 and gave IC a set point, but the Green Knights ended it with three straight points, the last two of which came off the hand of Lexie Van Hiel.
The Green Knights jumped ahead again in the third set, 2-0, but Illinois College had an answer, scoring seven out of eight points to lead, 7-3. The Lady Blues maintained their lead the rest of the way pulled ahead in the match, 2-1.
Despite a 6-1 start to the fourth set from St. Norbert, the Lady Blues had the match within their sights late in the set, tied at 20-20 following a Green Knights ball-handling error. The visitors would rise to the challenge and score four points in a row to earn a set point. Though IC was finally able to earn a side-out on a kill by
Carlee Bale, the Green Knights ended it on the next point to send the match to a fifth and deciding set.
After the Lady Blues took a 2-1 lead in the fifth set, St. Norbert scored seven straight to grab full control. Following the change of sides, the Lady Blues pulled back within four on kills from
Maddie Ramsey and
Brenna Dameris, but four points was as close as they would get the rest of the way.
Pankey ended the night with a match-high 20 kills while tying
Madie Budd for the team high with 17 digs.
Elizabeth Ganley notched 48 assists and 16 digs.
Abbie Horstmann had 13 kills and a team-best .440 hitting percentage.
Illinois College will have no time to recuperate, getting back to action tomorrow at 12 p.m. against Ripon College and at 4 p.m. against Coe College in Sherman Gymnasium.
