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Millikin vs. Wheaton Semifinal Box Score
The Carthage College women's volleyball team (33-3, 7-0 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin), ranked 14th in the Nov. 4 American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, got by No. 17 Elmhurst College (30-8), 3-2, on Friday, Nov. 7 in the semifinals of the CCIW Women's Volleyball Tournament at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. The top-seeded Lady Reds' winning set scores over the fourth-seeded Bluejays were 25-17, 25-16, 23-25, 22-25 and 15-9.
Second-seeded and No. 23 Millikin University (30-8) outlasted third-seeded Wheaton College (Ill., 12-21), 3-2, in Friday's first a semifinal match. The Big Blue's winning set scores over the Thunder were 25-6, 19-25, 25-19, 19-25 and 20-18. Audrey Krajec led Millikin with 23 kills, a .316 attack percentage, 11 digs, two block solos and a block assist.
Carthage came out slow in the first set, trailing the Blue Jays, 10-7. However, the Lady Reds began to pick up their energy after Sara Shumaker (Sr., Bristol, Wis./Salem-Westosha Central) had a service ace bringing the score to, 15-12, which was then followed by four back-to-back kills from Mallory Parsons (Fr., Lake Zurich, Ill./Lake Zurich), Rachel Fields (Sr., Chicago, Ill./Oak Park-Fenwick), and two by Bria Hailey (Jr., Hanover Park, Ill./Schaumburg) to make the score 21-14. In the second set, the Lady Reds took the lead early on and pulled ahead with a 10-point lead after Karen Chin (Jr., Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein), recovered a Blue Jay attack attempt, sailing the ball deep into the middle back of the court, bringing the score 18-8.
Elmhurst picked up the pace in the third, keeping in close scoring range of the Lady Reds until finally pulling ahead 20-19. The Lady Reds kept fighting back and Hailey had a kill to tie it up at 23-23, but the Blue Jays then took a timeout to regroup and finished the set 25-23. "Elmhurst tipped a couple of balls in the third set," said Carthage coach Leanne Ulmer, " and I thought we were kind of flat. We played great the first two sets and played with a lot energy. Elmhurst got energized in that third set and played really well from that point on."
In the fourth, Elmhurst maintained a lead over Carthage for most of the set, but the Lady Reds attempted to recover their once 6-point deficit at, 14-20, by bringing the score to 21-24, after Parsons had a kill for the Lady Reds. However, Elmhurst kept their energy strong and won the fourth 25-22. Carthage took the lead in the beginning of the fifth, but the Blue Jays kept the score close at, 5-3. The Lady Reds began pulling away with a kill by Megan Fallert (Fr., Maplewood, Minn./Roseville-Concordia Academy) who brought the score to 10-6. Later, Carthage was awarded a point by the official after one of the Elmhurst coaches had an outburst because of a point discrepancy between the teams, and was then kicked out of the arena, making the score 12-9. Carthage then finished out the set strong with a kill by Parsons, ending the set and winning the match, 15-9. "We fought back," said Ulmer, "and made up a couple of substitutions in the fifth set to change the chemistry. It was a dog fight, and we made a few plays when we needed to."
Parsons led the Lady Reds to a victory, with 18 kills, assisted by teammates Fields, who had 16 kills, and Emily Heuermann (Jr., Washington, Ill./Washington) who had 10 kills. Chin obtained 46 assists, while teammate Hannah Cahoon (Sr., Watertown, Wis./Watertown) had 14 digs.
"Elmhurst was playing without one of their middle blockers, Melissa Nava, who is hurt" pointed out Ulmer, "but they did a real nice job without her. Their defense was really good, and they were taking everything we had and shoving it down our throats. We got a little passive, and they took advantage. Tomorrow against Millikin will be more of the same. They have a great team, they're big, and they're physical. Nothing comes easy this time of year. We learned a big lesson tonight, that you have to play with the same intensity all the way through a match. You can't give anybody anything."
Carthage takes on Millikin in the tournament-championship match on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 2 p.m., with the winner claiming the automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship.
