This past week the womens volleyball team was hard at work as they played three separate midwest conference games.
Tuesday the tenth kept to the Vikings winning streak as they went against Beloit college, making it now a consecutive four wins in a row as they took the win with sets of 25-13,25-14, and 25-20. Senior Arianna Cohen led Lawrence (9-12, 4-1 MWC) with 12 kills, and Junior Arianna Neumeyer added 10 more. Neumeyer had eight digs and four aces, and Cohen, senior Colleen Nowlan, freshman Addisyn Gerber and senior Rachael Wuensch picked up two blocks apiece. Senior Sydney Nelson had 16 assists and 13 digs, and Jaylan Dunn, Taylor Lewis and Chloe Fleming paced Beloit (6-13, 1-3) with seven kills each.
Lawrence lead the opening set with a 15-12 lead. The Vikings made six consecutive points to take a 21-12 lead and closed out the set quickly. The second set was tied at 6-6 before the Vikings won 14-5 to go up 20-11. Beloit won the next two points, but Lawrence took five of the next six after that to close out the set. In the final set Lawrence pulled out to a 13-3 lead, but Beloit was able to get close with 15-10. The Vikings were leading 17-13 when Lawrence scored five of the next six points to seal the victory.
Over the weekend the volleyball team also went up against Ripon and Lake Forest. Ripon took away our winning streak as the Vikings lost 1-3, with sets of 25-21,17-25,25-21, and 25-19. The Vikings (10-13, 5-2 MWC), managed to come back and regain their winning mentality as they defeated Lake Forest on Saturday, winning 3-2 with sets of 25-20,23-25,19-25,26-24, and 15-11.
Arianna Neumeyer said, “This past week we played Beloit, Ripon, and Lake Forest and ended up with a 2-1 record. We had to overcome many obstacles and people had to play certain positions they usually don’t play. Overall we played well and did what we needed to in order to win. The two games we won, we were consistent in everything we did. As for the game we lost, let’s just say we learned our lesson. The Beloit game was the first time we won a match in 3 sets this season. The game that will always stay with me, and I’m sure my teammates can attest to this, is the Lake Forest game. We had to stay strong and focused through adversity. A long night of travel the night before left us sleep deprived and sore, but we overcame a lot to play one of our top games this season. This game showed us what we are capable of and revealed our strength not just individuals, but as a team.” ‘
Make sure to watch the team as they hopefully continue their very strong winning streak this Friday the 20th against Grinnell, as well as Saturday against Cornell college!