Lawrence University’s Women’s Volleyball produced a stellar performance on their senior night, Thursday, Oct. 24, beating Maranatha Baptist 3-0 in a Midwest Conference victory at Alexander Gymnasium. The night was dedicated to celebrating five seniors: Hilirie McLaughlin, Cora Linos, Taylor Hughes, Aliana Butler-Gray and Daphne Piotrowski.
The Vikings boasted an impressive back-to-back 25-7 win in the first two sets, before rounding off with a convincing 25-17 win the final set.
Butler-Gray and first-year Hazel Cook lead the team in kills, notching 10 and 9 respectively in the game. The two were helped massively by first-year Margaret Hahnke, who picked up a game-high 5 aces to go along with 5 kills of her own. Another serious attacking threat for the Vikings was McLaughlin, who added 7 kills to the board for her team.
Linos was again the team’s primary playmaker, producing 25 assists, improving on her previous total of 19 against Lake Forest. Lawrence wasn’t just preoccupied with their attack, however, as they led the game in defensive stats as well, with a total of 22 digs and 3 blocks, 7 of which were dug up by libero Piotrowski. First-year Zoey Estrada also added 5 digs to the count. The Vikings’ efforts on the back foot limited the Bobcats to 31 points in their contest.
In the first set, Lawrence started strong with a run of 6 consecutive points. Hahnke opened with 3 straight aces before Cook added another 3 kills without reply. Baptist would then trade blows with the Vikings, ultimately scoring 3 points for Lawrence’s 4. The Vikings would go on to close the first set with 3 separate runs of 4 points scored in a row.
The second set saw the introduction of Hughes, who helped Lawrence put together an 8-point streak in the early minutes. Baptist would respond, regularly going point-for-point with the Vikings near the end, but the Lawrence defense kept their score at 7 while replicating their tally of 25.
Finally, in the third set, Lawrence had to battle hard with Maranatha Baptist, as their opponents assembled 3-point runs on multiple occasions. Ultimately, though, the Vikings would pull through, thanks to late interventions from Cook and junior Natalee Kragie, who both notched 4 kills without reply in the closing stages. Linos was also on point, laying on 10 of her 25 assists in this set.
This result sees Lawrence extend their winning streak to 2 wins over Maranatha Baptist. With a final 4 matches to go, the Vikings will be looking to the celebrated seniors of tonight to lead them on a successful run into the Midwest Conference Tournament.