DECATUR, Ill. – DECATUR, Ill. – The Carthage College women's volleyball team advanced to the 2017 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Women's Volleyball Tournament Championship Friday night, as the second-seeded Lady Reds swept the third-seeded Illinois Wesleyan University Titans in the first semifinal, 3-0.
With the win, the Lady Reds have now won nine in a row and improve to 24-8 on the season and 2-0 against the Titans, while IWU falls to 22-7.
The Lady Reds overcame being blocked seven times in the first set to take a 1-0 lead with a 25-23 win. Carthage hit just .122 but made the most of the Titans' .085 attack in the first set, where IWU recorded just 11 kills.
In the second set, Carthage led most of the way but the Titans made a late push to draw even at 20-20, before setting themselves up with set-point at 24-23. The Titans once again had an advantage at the net defensively, blocking the Lady Reds six more times, while Carthage got to the Titans' attack once. But with IWU looking to take the set,
Megan Behrendt forced extra points with a kill to make it 24-24, and after a 28-28 tie, Behrendt finished it off with the final two kills to take the set 30-28.
The third set saw both Carthage and Illinois Wesleyan put together their best offensive games of the match, with the Lady Reds holding a .256 to .222 edge to sweep the match with a 25-21 win. The Lady Reds were able to finally figure out the Titan block and had a clean set in which they were not blocked once. The Lady Reds even out blocked Illinois Wesleyan 2-0 in the set. Carthage forced the Titans to use their final timeout early in the set with the Lady Reds leading 17-14. Out of the timeout the Titans cut the lead to one on multiple occasions, but an attack error and ball handling error setup
Luci Krenzke to serve for the match, which she laced for an ace to end the match.
Carthage finished the match hitting just .155 but it was enough as Illinois Wesleyan struggled, hitting .119 in the defeat. A trio of sophomores shined in the win on the offensive side of the Lady Reds with
Ellie LeCount dishing out a match high 37 assists and
Megan Behrendt and
Shannon Kebisek reaching double digits in kills with 16 and 11 respectively. Behrendt's 16 kills were a match-high.
Rachael Kisten, who had a hand in both third set blocks for the Lady Reds, led Carthage with four blocks, followed by middle blockers
Katie Laio with three and
Megan Fallert with two.
Kebisek also led four Carthage players with ten or more digs, recording 15 to lead the Lady Reds.
Luci Krenzke and
Mallory Parsons were next on the team with 12 and
Megan Behrendt rounded out the group with ten.
Carthage will play the winner of the second semifinal between the top-seeded Millikin University Big Blue and Elmhurst College Bluejays, whom are the four-seed. The championship match is set for 6:00 p.m. at Millikin on Saturday.
