The Monmouth College volleyball team started the season with two losses at the Grinnell/Central Invite. The Fighting Scots played both games Friday at Grinnell, falling to Dominican 3-1 and Bethany Lutheran 3-2. In the second match, junior setter Paige Bergschneider (Alexander, Illinois) became the 12th player in Monmouth history with at least 1,000 career assists.
The Scots opened with Dominican in the 5 p.m. game and dropped the opening set 25-18. Monmouth bounced back to even the match as they won the second set 28-26. The Stars dominated the third set 25-8 and won the fourth set 25-15 to win the match.
Layne Wright (Davenport, Iowa) led the Scots with 11 kills in the opener while Amanda Dybal (Apex, North Carolina) had eight. Bergschneider had 27 assists to go with 17 digs and Savannah Robinson (Delavan, Illinois) had 23 digs. Bergschneider led the team with two aces and CeCe Palladino (Volo, Illinois) had a solo block.
The second match of the night was against Bethany Lutheran. Monmouth fell behind 2-0 as the Vikings took the opening set 25-17 and the second set 25-19. Bergschneider reached the 1,000 assist mark in the third set as the Scots stayed alive with a 25-22 win. Monmouth kept the momentum going with a 25-15 win to force a fifth set. The Scots led 3-1 and 4-2 in the fifth set before the Vikings went on a run to go up 8-5. The teams traded points and Monmouth cut the gap to 12-11 on an ace by Robinson and tied the game at 12 on a kill from freshman Zoe Nizzia (Pekin, Illinois). But Bethany Lutheran won the next three points to finish off the match.
Wright led the way with a career-high 14 kills and she had just two attack errors against the Vikings. Kenzie Russell (Morton, Illinois) had nine kills. Bergschneider had 42 assists and 12 digs while Robinson had 26 digs. Wright added 12 digs and two aces while Russell had 13 digs.
MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Head coach Derrick Broekemier made his Monmouth College and Division III debut on Friday…The Scots played three newcomers in the match against Dominican and also had one college debut in the Bethany Lutheran matchWright had 35 kills on the dayHer previous career high in kills was 21 from last season against WebsterShe hit .449 against the VikingsBergschneider finished with 69 assists and moved into 11th on the Scots career list with 1,050Robinson had 49 digs on the dayThe Scots play two more matches at Grinnell on SaturdayThey will face Crown College at 11 a.m. and Wisconsin-Stout at 1 p.m.
***Courtesy of Nathan Baliva, Monmouth College***
