The Monmouth College volleyball team took another big step as a program on Friday night with a 25-22, 15-25, 25-19, 25-19 win over Illinois College to take sole possession of first place in the Midwest Conference. The Fighting Scots (13-8, 3-0) beat IC for the first time in 11 years, moved to 3-0 in MWC action for the first time in 13 years and have the best start over 21 games in 12 years.
“The fight and energy tonight was big for us” said head coach Derrick Broekemier. “We knew we had to work hard and we out worked them and did what we needed to do tonight. We are into some unchartered territory and are doing a lot of things other Monmouth teams haven’t done in a while and it gives us momentum into next week “
The opening set started with Tyla Mattson (Morton, Illinois) serving the Scots to a 2-0 lead. IC responded to take a 6-4 lead before Kaylee Celus (Annawan, Illinois) picked up her first kill. After a tie, IC led 12-8 but the Scots answered with two points off errors and a kill by Paige Foltz (Vinton, Iowa) during a 4-0 run. Layne Wright (Davenport, Iowa) served an ace, Foltz had a block and Celus had another kill as Monmouth extended to a 16-12 lead. After a timeout, IC won three straight points and Celus picked up a kill. The Lady Blues bounced back again and tied the set at 17 before kills from Alana Robertson (Mapleton, Illinois) and Celus put Monmouth up two. Lauren Aldrich (Wauconda, Illinois) and Wright had kills while Foltz and Wright split a block before Chloe Strachan (Reynolds, Illinois) gave Monmouth set point with a kill. An attack error by IC finished the first set with Monmouth winning 25-22.
The second set started with IC grabbing leads of 5-1, 8-3 and 12-6. The Lady Blues pushed the lead to 10 before Foltz got a kill. The visitors had a 4-0 run to lead 20-7. Wright stopped the run with a kill and then won a point on her serve. The Lady Blues pushed the lead to 22-10 before a service error. Paige Bergschneider (Alexander, Illinois) served up an ace and Aldrich got two kills but IC held on to win the set 25-15.
Kills for Foltz, Strachan and Celus got Monmouth out to a 4-2 lead in the third set. Wright and Foltz had kills before IC went up 9-8. Wright got a kill for a sideout and added an ace for a 10-9 MC lead. Robertson picked up a kill to end a 3-point IC run and Celus powered home a kill after a long rally to tie the set at 13. Aldrich and Wright had kills leading to a Celus ace and a 16-14 lead. Aldrich and Strachan picked up consecutive kills for a 19-16 lead and IC called timeout. After a sideout, Wright got two aces in a 3-0 run with Celus getting the kill in between. With Savannah Robinson (Delavan, Illinois) serving at set point, Monmouth took the set 25-19 on an error by IC.
Wright started the fourth set with a kill and Celus ran off three kills in a row for a 5-4 lead. A block from Robertson and Aldrich gave the Scots a 6-4 lead but IC won the next seven points Robertson ended the run with a kill and she added a block after Aldrich had a kill. Wright’s kill cut the IC lead to 11-10 but the visitors took the next three points to go back up by four. With Robertson serving, the Scots pulled even with kills from Foltz and Aldrich. Monmouth took the lead on an error and Mattson’s ace made it 17-15. Wright added two straight kills to put the Scots up 19-15. Wright had an ace for a 21-17 lead and IC called timeout before winning two straight points. Celus made it 22-19 with a kill and Robinson’s ace made it 23-19. Celus gave the Scots match point with a kill and she finished off the match with her 13th kill of the night.
“We had a bunch of people step up tonight in different spots and that is a big reason why this team is special,” said Broekemeier.
Celsius led the way with 13 kills while Wright added 10 and Aldrich had nine. Mattson had 16 assists and Bergschneider had 16. Wright led with five aces and Foltz had four blocks. Monmouth had three players in double digits for digs as Wright had 14, Ceus had 13 and Bergschneider had 11.
MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Celus has at least 10 kills in 18 of her 19 matches on the season … Wright has a career-high 51 aces on the season … Bergschneider moved past Cindy Erlandson for seventh on the career assists list with 1616 … Robinson moved past Jessica Travis into 11th on the career digs list with 1156 … Monmouth is 25-34 all-time against Illinois College with the last win before tonight coming at home on Oct. 15, 2013 … The Scots last started 3-0 in MWC play in 2011 with wins over Beloit, Lake Forest and Ripon … The Scots are 4-0 at home this season, second straight year they have won the first four home matches … The last 5-0 start at home was in 2013 … The 13-8 start is the best since the 2012 team also started 13-8 and the 2010 team was 14-7 after 21 matches … This is the first match in a four-game homestand for the Scots … Monmouth hosts Eureka at 7 p.m on Wednesday … Monmouth returns to MWC action at 7 p.m. Friday at home against Cornell and Senior Day is next Saturday at 1 p.m. against Beloit.
***Courtesy of Nathan Baliva, Monmouth College***
