In a battle of the top two teams in the Arrowhead Conference, Sauk Valley came away with a 17-25, 25-19, 26-24, 25-16 victory over the Carl Sandburg College volleyball team on Tuesday night at John M. Lewis Gymnasium.
The loss was the first in the conference this season for the defending champion Chargers (21-7, 6-1), who had won 18 straight Arrowhead matches. It also moves Sauk Valley (18-11, 6-1), which lost in four sets at home to the Chargers in their first meeting, into a tie with Sandburg atop the conference standings with three matches to go.
The match turned on a tightly contested third set that had 12 ties and five lead changes. Sandburg opened up a 6-1 lead before the Skyhawks recovered, and the teams went back and forth down the stretch.
Tied at 23, the Chargers came out of a timeout with a kill by Peyton Bowman (Sciota, Ill./West Prairie) from Cora Vyhnanek (Colchester, Ill./West Prairie). But Sauk Valley’s Lexi Greve put a kill down the line to tie it at 24, and a pair of Sandburg hitting errors followed, giving the Skyhawks the set.
Bowman finished with 15 kills and a .500 hitting percentage to lead Sandburg, and Tearaney Eads (Lincoln, Ill./Lincoln) had a double-double for the Chargers with 12 kills and 11 digs.
Vyhnanek had 31 assists and 12 digs out of her setter position. Libero Emily Bloomer (Burlington, Iowa/Burlington) had team highs of 16 kills and two aces, and sophomore Mallory Flynn (Alexis, Ill./United) had three blocks and 11 digs for Sandburg.
UP NEXT FOR SANDBURG
6 p.m. Wednesday at home vs. Lincoln JV
