Volleyball keeps truckin’

by Mallory Mulvihill
Sports Editor

The women’s volleyball team traveled to Beliot, Wisc. this past weekend, Sept.24 and 25. The Scots played three matches against St. Norbert, Beloit, and Ripon only winning one against Beloit.

The women had troubles staying consistent from match to match and struggled with the basics. The first match against St. Norbert took a lot out of the ladies as they lost in five games: 30-28, 27-30, 25-30, 30-25, 10-15. The women made little mistakes throughout the whole game which included nine service errors and twenty five hitting errors, eight of which were in the final match.

“The Norbert game took a lot out of us. We were so close to beating them in the fifth match when we were tied at 7-7, but we had eight hitting errors,” said Coach Shimmin.

Sophomore Kendra James still holds strong to her consistent All Tournament honors as she put down 25 kills alone against St. Norbert to go along with five blocks. James is now tied for fourth in all time kills in a single match. Fellow sophomore, Jessica Travis also contributed with 15 kills and 23 digs. Senior Karissa Murray led the team in digs with 29. Sophomore Colleen Wilkin broke the school record in assists with 65.

The women took on Beloit in the second game of the three game stretch beating them 30-32, 30-26, 30-24, 18-30, 15-11. Travis had 14 kills, 21 digs, and five blocks. Sophomore Ashley Yeast had 12 kills and James added 11. James also had six blocks to go along with a service ace. Wilkin dished out 47 assists.

The team took on Ripon in their third and final match and fell hard in three quick games: 20-30, 21-30, 21-30. After splitting the night before, Shimmin and the rest of the team hoped that all cylinders would be working when they took on Ripon, especially coming off a solid performance against a fairly good Beloit team.    Two Red Hawks had kills in double digits with 11 and 12 with only 15 hitting errors as a team to the Scots 20. Murray had 10 kill, James added nine, and Travis seven. The Scots also totaled nine service errors. “Ripon played a great match. We kind of self-destructed, while they did everything right,” said Shimmin.

For the weekend, James had 45 kills, four aces, and 13 blocks. Murray finished with 50 digs, seven aces, and 30 kills. Travis had 35 kills and 47 digs.

The Scots participate in the second round of the crossover tournament on Oct. 8. But until then, they compete in the Millikin tournament on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 in which they will challenge Millikin, Manchester, Anderson and Lincoln Christian in hopes to improve their 10-7 record.