Women play tough at Wesleyan

Midwest Conference Tournament is up next

by Mallory Mulvihill
Sports Editor

The Fighting Scots traveled to Illinois Wesleyan this past weekend Oct. 28 and 29. The Scots finished a noble 2-2 against very tough competition.     The women took on Illinois Wesleyan and Marantha Baptist on the 28 and then took on an undefeated Washington University and North Central on the 29.

The women took on a tough Illinois Wesleyan team on their home court in the first game of the Titan Tournament. The Scots played tough taking the Titans to five games, but losing in the fifth game: 30-25, 22-30, 16-30, 32-30, 15-7. "Man that was a close game that we should have won. It was real close. We played tough," said Coach Shimmin. Jessica Travis led the team in kills with 14 and right behind her was Kendra James with 10. Karissa Murray and Crystal Meyers shared defensive duties picking up 13 digs and a team high 20. Colleen Wilkin finished with 39 assists.

The women took on a pretty strong Marantha Baptist team, who came into the game with 22 wins and 8 losses. The women pulled off a victory in four games: 27-30, 30-16, 31-29, 33-31. Murray and James led the attack with 16 and 12 kills. James also added 6 blocks. Murray did it all, adding 3 aces, 12 digs, and 2 blocks. Wilkin added to her assists total with a blistering 40 assists to go along with 6 service aces and no service errors.

The women came into the game on Saturday knowing they were about to play an undefeated Washington University out of St. Louis, who is undefeated (28-0) and ranked number one in the nation. The Scots quickly learned what it would take to compete in the national tournament and fell to WU in three games: 16-30, 9-30, 20-30. "Washington hasn't lost. They have a bunch of over 6 footers. They showed amazing ball control and didn't make many errors," said Shimmin. The women put up a good fight and James still left the match with 7 kills and Wilkin had 18 assists.

The Scots held their heads high and came back to play a rough five match game against North Central in which the women won: 30-26, 26-30, 30-27, 28-30, 15-13. This match left a good taste in the women's mouths as they watched Wilkin break the school record of assists per game with 60. James and Murray almost broke the 20 kill mark with 19 and 17 kills apiece. Travis added 11 to go along with 8 digs. Murray again did it all as she added 18 digs to her strong offensive performance. Kari Jefferson also had a strong performance as she had 8 kills of her own to go along with 8 blocks. Meyers did her job at the libero with 21 digs.    Wilkin is closing on Heather Randall's all time setting record. Wilkin has 1,223 and Randall's record is set at 1,331. Wilkin is only a sophomore. James had 58 kills over the weekend. Murray leads the MWC in aces as she added nine to her total after this weekend. "I really do believe this weekend was a positive experience for the girls. We played some tough teams and came out even. I think it instilled a lot of confidence in them going into this weekend," said Shimmin.

This weekend will be an important one for the women as they head to De Pere, Wisc. to fight for a national tournament spot with the top six teams in the Midwest Conference. The women will take on the winner of Lake Forest and Ripon. The Scots finished second in the MWC which earned them a buy into the second round.

The Scots played a tough game against Lake Forest on their homecoming, but won in five games after making a rough trip up, which they were caught in traffic for almost six hours.

The women lost to Ripon in a tough match in which the women didn't play up till their caliber and lost in three.    St. Norbert takes on the winner of Illinois College and Beloit. The winners of the second round games play for the championship on Saturday Nov. 5. "We just have to play aggressive and play to win. Our main goal is be consistent and we can win. I have confidence in the girls," added Shimmin.