Lincoln Women’s Volleyball picks up road win at MU

[September 30, 2017] 

The Lincoln College Women’s Volleyball team traveled to Decatur on Thursday for a road match against the Millikin University JV team. LC edged out two narrow set wins before dominating the third set to complete the sweep for their 12th victory of the season.

In the early going of set one, neither team was able to gain an advantage as they traded side outs up to a 7-7 tie. It was then that LC outside hitter Maddie Malinowski (Bloomington) ran off six service points in a row to help give her team some breathing room. The Lady Lynx would maintain a lead the rest of the way, however, MU was able to threaten late in the set with a four point run that would cut Lincoln’s lead to just one point at 24-23.

Kaylyn Hoffert

After a Lincoln timeout, a cross court kill by sophomore outside hitter Kaylyn Hoffert (Lincoln) off a set assist from fellow sophomore Abbi Buelow (Rockford) would end the threat and give Lincoln a 25-23 set win. Hoffert would finish the match with seven kills and Buelow picked up ten set assists.

Set two would follow a similar pattern to set one as Lincoln built an early lead, but Millikin made things interesting by putting together a late run of points to narrow the score. MU was aided by several Lincoln serving errors along the way which kept the Lady Lynx from finishing off the set. In the end though, LC came through with the win 25-23 on a kill down the line by sophomore right side Mikayla Seibert (Mackinaw).

“We missed six serves in set two, which is not typical for our team,” said Lincoln Coach Mark Tippett. “Fortunately, our passing off of serve receive was strong throughout the match, so we were able to overcome the serving errors without giving up runs of points.”

#12 - Elysa Smith

In set three, LC only missed one serve and the result was a convincing 25- 16 set win to end the match. Freshman libero Megan Gilliam (Waterloo) led the defensive effort for LC with 13 digs. Setter Jenna Weller contributed 16 set assists, five digs and three points while sophomores Mattie Giese (Highland Park) and Elysa Smith (Metamora) tied for the team lead in kills with eight each. The victory improves Lincoln’s record to 12-7 on the season.

Coach Tippett is pleased with how his team is playing as they near the mid-point of the season. “I like where we are as a team,” he said. “Our passing has been consistently strong which has helped us to speed up our offense. We have shown a lot of growth over the first month of the season, and I am confident we will continue to improve in October.”

Lincoln is off until October 4th when they return home for a 6:00 PM match against the Belleville-Lindenwood JV.

[Mark Tippett
Lincoln College
Sports Information]