Lincoln College wins volleyball tournament at Black Hawk

[August 31, 2009]  On Saturday the Lincoln College volleyball team earned its first tournament championship of the season by winning the fourth annual volleyball tournament at Black Hawk College. Lincoln finished the tournament with a 4-1 record.

During pool play the Lady Lynx (5-1) defeated Elgin Community College and Wabaunsee College before suffering their first defeat of the season at the hands of tournament hosts Black Hawk. This placed LC second in their pool and led to a semifinal matchup with Sauk Valley Community College. LC defeated Sauk 25-19, 25-19 to advance to the championship match. In that match they again faced the host team. This time Lincoln was ready for the Lady Braves and took the match in two sets by scores of 25-18, 25-9.

LC freshman middle hitter Abby Hare was named MVP of the tournament.

LC individual totals for the tournament:

• Melanie Herbeck -- 40 set assists, 20 points, 3 aces

• Gretchen Rieger -- 31 kills, 20 digs, 28 points

• Abbie Hare -- 14 kills, 17 blocks

• Samantha Murphy -- 32 set assists, 15 points

• Lara Dawson -- 17 kills, 29 points, 7 blocks

• Chelsea Barr -- 28 digs, 16 points

• Natalia Florczyk -- 10 kills, 9 points

• Emily Fox -- 13 set assists, 11 points

Comments from LC coach Mark Tippett:

"Due to a family emergency I was unable to be with the team for this tournament. Assistant coach Sam McCoy filled in for me and did a fantastic job of guiding the team through this tournament. According to coach McCoy, the sophomores stepped up and showed their leadership skills, and the freshman players contributed in all aspects of the game. She was impressed by the way the team stuck together to win against a very competitive field.

"Black Hawk College has an athletic team with a powerful offensive attack. Our team did not let the loss to BHC during pool play take away their confidence. In the rematch our players came out determined to avenge the earlier defeat and took the momentum right away. After leading most of the way in the set one victory, they jumped out to a huge lead in set two and stayed focused enough to cruise to victory by a wide margin.

"I am extremely pleased with the progress our team has made in a short amount of time. To have such success this early in the season is great for building our confidence before we start to play teams in our conference and region."

Lincoln will travel to Peoria on Tuesday to take on Illinois Central College. Then on Thursday the Lady Lynx will host their first home match of the season, against Robert Morris College of Springfield.

[Text from file received from Mark Tippett, Lincoln College volleyball coach]