DECATUR, Ill. – The Illinois College volleyball team ended Friday with a split of two matches, coming back from a 2-1 deficit in sweltering conditions to top Lincoln College, 3-2, in the first match of the day. IC didn't have enough left in the tank for the nightcap, falling to Millikin by a score of 3-0 for its first loss of the season. The Lady Blues are now 6-1 overall heading into tomorrow's action at the Millikin Fall Invitational.
The Lady Blues wrap up play in Decatur tomorrow with matches at 11 a.m. against Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and 1 p.m. against Greenville University.
Illinois College 3, Lincoln 2
(25-13, 19-25, 25-27, 25-18, 15-10)
Outside the first set, nothing came easy in the first match of the day for Illinois College on Friday. The Lady Blues needed no time at all to take a 1-0 lead, but Lincoln rallied to take a 2-1 lead in the match before an IC comeback kept the team undefeated.
Ali Pankey was unstoppable in the first set with seven kills as Illinois College enjoyed a .308 hitting percentage as a team and had a 17-5 edge in total kills over the Lynx.
The errors began to pile up in the middle stages of the match. Lincoln had its best hitting percentage of the match at .250 in the second set while Illinois College had a combined 17 attack errors in the second and third sets as Lincoln took a surprising 2-1 lead.
When Illinois College needed it most, Pankey stepped up once again. The senior had seven kills in the fourth set, including three in a row to turn a 15-14 deficit into a 17-15 advantage. Two more kills by Pankey in a five-point spurt on
Madison Klanke's serve grew the lead to 22-16 and IC cruised from there to take the match to a fifth set.
Lincoln led, 3-1, early in the fifth but with the score tied at 6-6, Illinois College reeled off four in a row. Pankey started it with a kill and a block along with
Reagan Gifford. After a Lincoln attack error,
Elizabeth Ganley earned a kill off of a Lynx block error to make it 10-6. Lincoln closed to within a point at 11-10, but IC scored four in a row to end it.
Carlee Bale, Pankey and
Abbie Horstmann all had kills in that span for the Lady Blues.
Pankey ended with a match-high 20 kills and added in 13 digs, while Klanke and
Brenna Dameris each had 13 kills apiece. Ganley had 54 assists to go along with 16 digs on the night.
Madie Budd led the defense with 22 digs, surpassing 1,000 for her career.
Millikin 3, Illinois College 0
(21-25, 16-25, 23-25)
After the hard-fought match to start the day, Illinois College just didn't have enough left to get past Millikin. Though the match was close throughout, the Big Blue always did enough to just keep their nose out in front. An advantage of .308 to .185 in favor of Millikin in the match helped the home team's cause.
With the first set tied up at 17-17, Millikin recovered from consecutive points by Illinois College to run off three straight for a 20-17 lead. IC cut it to one, but the Big Blue answered back with another three in a row to help close it out.
The Big Blue scored the first three points of the second set and never trailed, only allowing IC to get within two points on two occasions. The Lady Blues hit a match-low .086 in the second set and committed six attack errors. Though the third set was closer after IC rallied out of a big early deficit, Millikin made the plays it needed in the closing stages to complete the three-set sweep.
Pankey registered team highs in both kills and digs with eight and 14, respectively. Bale and Horstmann collected six kills in the match. Ganley ended with 23 assists.
