Lady Lynx Volleyball Picks Up Four-Set Win at Home Over Blackburn

[September 06, 2019] 

The Lincoln College Women’s Volleyball team had a difficult time putting the visiting team from Blackburn College away on Wednesday night, but in the end they were able to take the match in four sets for their fourth win of the season.

Lincoln jumped out to an early lead in set one and went up by as many as six points at 17-11, but several missed serves and hitting errors allowed Blackburn to narrow the gap and eventually tie the score at 22-22. However, back-to-back kills by seniors Elysa Smith (Metamora) and Mikayla Seibert (Mackinaw) and an ace from sophomore setter Morgan Lolling (Lincoln) ended the threat to give LC a 25-22 opening set win.

Set two followed a similar pattern to the first set with Lincoln leading most of the way only to commit a string of errors which helped the Blackburn mount another late comeback and win the set 25-23.

In set four, LC was able to clean up their act and committed very few errors on their way to a convincing 25-14 win. Senior outside hitter Hannah Cameron (Lincoln) helped spark the Lady Lynx offense in the set by recording three kills and two aces.

Set four was a back-and-forth battle all the way with each team going on long runs of points. LC jumped out to an 8-0 lead behind the accurate serving of setter Morgan Lolling, but they were unable to keep the momentum going as Blackburn responded with a seven-point run of their own to reduce Lincoln’s advantage to just one point at 8-7. LC was able to manage a side out on the next volley and from there steadily built another large lead to go up 16-9.

Blackburn was not done yet though as they tried to make another comeback attempt by reducing the LC lead to as few as two points, but this time the Lady Lynx would be able to hold them off well enough to earn a 25-21 set four win to end the match.

LC Coach Mark Tippett saw the match as another valuable learning experience for his squad. “We had a lot of new pieces in play tonight and changes to deal with due to injuries and new players becoming available to play, so this one kind of felt like playing our first match of the season all over again,” said Tippett. “The nerves showed a bit in the first two sets, but once we got into the flow of the match, we settled down and were able to play a more consistent game.”

Setter Morgan Lolling tallied a team-high 38 set assists in the match for Lincoln. Seibert was the team's kill leader with 11 while outside hitters Hannah Cameron and Josalyn Owens (Lincoln) had eight each. Junior libero Megan Gilliam (Waterloo) led the defensive effort with 17 digs.

Lincoln (4-2) will continue their home stand with three matches at home this weekend. LC will host Purdue University Northwest (NCAA DII) on Friday evening at 6:30 PM. On Saturday, the Lady Lynx will take on two NAIA opponents when they play an 11:00 AM match against Governor’s State University then finish with a 1:00 PM match-up with Calumet College of St. Joseph.

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