After three hard fought games on Saturday, Oct. 12, the volleyball team came out with a 3-0 win over Midwest Conference competitor Illinois College.
Concerning mental preparation for the game, junior Betsey Sorensen said, “I was expecting a team that would come out strong, with some good players. I was expecting a fight and was prepared to defend our home court.”
The Vikes spent the week leading up to the victory properly preparing their strategies for the match. Sophomore Andrea Wilkinson explained, “We watched film on IC, so we knew quite a bit about them coming into the game. We knew who their main hitters were, who we should serve at for the best chance of putting them out of system, where the holes were on their defense to hit to, and some of the trick plays that they like to run.”
The Vikings’ offense was led by sophomore Terese Swords, who finished the game with 16 kills. As a whole, Lawrence hit .324, with Sorensen and junior Kayla Storm contributing eight kills each. Wilkinson and fellow sophomore Megan Conley chipped in with some great offense, ending with six and five kills respectively. Swords mentioned, “I believe that Conley was this weekend’s MVP because she hit .545 for the match which is an amazing kill percentage.”
Those kills would not have been possible without the excellent setting of senior Diana McLeod, who contributed 36 assists to the mix. Defensively, senior Kathleen Rowland stole the show with a match high 16 digs, and has consistently played outstanding defense for the Vikes this season.
As far as the team’s strengths and weaknesses this past weekend, Conley added, “Our team’s strengths were staying positive during the game. Also, our offense stayed quick and for the most part consistent, which started with good passes and a good set. For weaknesses, we missed quite a bit of serves but I guess that happens when you try to serve aggressive like we try to; and also, we hesitated on who was going to get what ball every once in awhile, causing easy balls to be missed.”
Bucking the trend of weak team serving overall, senior Taylor Tomaszewski had an incredible serving game. Sorensen explained, “In one of the games, Taylor had a string of aces (five or six in a row) at a pivotal point in the game. It was ridiculously awesome.”
What does this win mean for the Vikings in the conference standings? Swords said, “Currently, because of our win against IC, Lawrence volleyball is 3-2, which means that we are in a great position in the Conference. This year there have been a lot of upsets and anyone is game to go to the Conference tournament. I believe if we can keep playing our game we have a great shot of getting a spot to go to conference.”
Their next conference match is against Lake Forest at Alexander Gym on Friday, Oct. 18.