LC Volleyball Goes 2-1 in Weekend Play

[October 08, 2019] 

The Lincoln College Women’s Volleyball team returned from a weekend trip to Missouri with two wins and one loss to move to 16-7 on the season.

LC started their road trip on Friday with an efficient three-set sweep of Harris-Stowe State University. Lincoln was in command from start to finish in this match to claim the win by scores of 25-9, 25-8 and 25-11. Junior outside hitter Ashlyn Slater (Grain Valley, MO) racked up twelve kills on the night, and sophomore Morgan Lolling (Lincoln) led in set assists with 18.

The Lady Lynx then traveled further south on Saturday to participate in a triangular set of matches hosted by the College of the Ozarks in Branson, Missouri.

In their first match of the day, Lincoln faced the College of the Ozarks Bobcats in a rematch of one of the team’s toughest contests of the season. Lincoln defeated Ozarks two weeks before at home in four close sets. Ozarks certainly had revenge on their minds and came out strong in set one to lead the entire way for a 25-19 win.

Lincoln responded in set two by jumping out to a 10-3 lead, but then let the Bobcats go on a 9-2 run to tie the score at 12-12. Ozarks continued to put the pressure on and built a 22-16 lead. The Lady Lynx offense then found its rhythm again and produced three straight kills - two from senior Elysa Smith (Metamora) and one from middle hitter Amazing Ashby (Aurora, CO). A service ace from senior Kaylyn Hoffert (Lincoln) also aided in changing the momentum and narrowed the COFO lead to 22-20, however, Ozarks would eventually go up 24-22 to earn the first set-point opportunity. On the next volley, senior setter Emma Derry found junior middle hitter Kayla Battle (Aurora) for a kill to keep their team’s hopes alive. After a COFO timeout, senior Hannah Cameron (Lincoln) delivered another kill to tie the score at 24-24. The two teams then traded side outs up to a 26-26 tie. The set was finally ended on back-to-back kills by Hoffert to give Lincoln the win and even the match at one set apiece.

Set three was just as closely contested as the previous set had been. The two teams battled their way through several long rallies and multiple tie scores until Ozarks eventually earned the first set-point opportunity after going up 24-23. However, a kill by senior right side Mikayla Seibert (Mackinaw) denied COFO the win and sent fellow Dee-Mack High School grad Faith McGinnes behind the service line. McGinnes would deliver the next two points aided by another kill from Seibert and a Bobcat hitting error to end the set in Lincoln’s favor 26-24.

The Lady Lynx0 had the chance to close out the match in set four, but Ozarks was able to get off to a strong start and led most of the way to a 25-18 victory which forced a deciding set to 15. In that set, Ozarks again grabbed the early momentum and built an 8-4 advantage. Later, an LC service error would put COFO up 10-6, but back-to-back attack errors by the Bobcats and a kill from Lincoln’s Kayla Battle reduced the lead to 10-9. LC then went on a 5-to-2 run to go up 14-12 and claim the first match-point opportunity, but COFO managed to win the next three points to turn the tables and put themselves in position to win the match up 15-14. After a Lincoln timeout, setter Emma Derry found Amazing Ashby for a strong kill in the middle which was followed by two kills from Hannah Cameron to seal the 17-15 set-five win and end the match in thrilling fashion.

Lincoln College Head Coach Mark Tippett was impressed with the way his team repeatedly responded under pressure to earn the victory. “Our players truly gave everything they had to win this match,” said Tippett. “Ozarks has a great team and they never stopped coming at us, but our players showed a great deal of mental toughness to overcome their intensity and find ways to win the close sets. I was proud of the way we stuck together and never gave up.”
 

Lincoln did not get much time to savor the win as they had to play their second match of the day against MidAmerica Nazarene University (KS) immediately after playing COFO. In that match, MNU came out with a strong blocking performance to open set one which put Lincoln in a 0-5 hole. Nazarene was able to maintain a comfortable advantage most of the set and had their first set-point opportunity at 24-20, but the Lady Lynx again found the energy to win the volley and fight off three more set-points in a row. Lincoln even earned a set-point chance of their own after going up 25-24, but MNU was able to win the next point to tie the score at 25-25. The teams then traded side outs up to a score of 27-27. Nazarene then won the next two points on a service ace and an LC hitting error that ended a long rally to give MNU a narrow 29-27 opening set win.

Lincoln was able to rebound in set two and win it 25-19, but fatigue may have been a factor in the next two sets as Nazarene was able to control the tempo of play on their way to wins of 25-18 and 25-21 to close out the match in four sets. The loss snapped an eight game winning streak for Lincoln College.

Senior Mikayla Seibert led Lincoln in total kills for the day with 23. Seibert’s total was just one better than that of junior middle hitter Amazing Ashby who racked up 22 kills in all. Four other Lady Lynx were able to reach double-digits in kills on the day including Hannah Cameron (13), Kayla Battle (11), Kaylyn Hoffert (10) and Josalyn Owens (10). Morgan Lolling and Emma Derry totaled 87 set assists in the match with Lolling owning 45 and Derry 42. Libero Megan Gilliam (Waterloo) was a standout on defense as she led Lincoln with 52 digs on the day as well as totaling a team-high 77 service receptions.

LC will look to get back in the winner’s circle on Wednesday evening when they again hit the road for a 6:00 PM match at Blackburn College.

[Mark Tippett
Lincoln College
Sports Information]