Madison, Wis. - Winners of four of their last five regular season matches, the Illinois Tech women's volleyball team traveled north of the Illinois border to take on number one-seeded Edgewood College in the first round of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Women's Volleyball tournament. The Scarlet Hawks gave the Eagles all that they could handle, but Edgewood pulled away in set four to claim the 3-1 match victory. The Eagles advance to the NACC Semifinal round and will host Concordia Wisconsin Thursday night in Madison.

For the Scarlet Hawks, their final record will stand at 7-19 overall, but they finished the season strong, qualifying for the tournament on their last match of the season, and building a strong foundation for next season.

Edgewood 3 - Illinois Tech 1 (25-18, 28-26, 24-26, 25-16)
 

• The opening frame set the tone for the match, as the Scarlet Hawks and Eagles battled throughout, with ten tie scores and six lead changes. Most of the set was a one-point affair on either side, with the biggest lead being two points a little more than midway through the set. Trailing 16-14, Illinois Tech used a 4-3 run to close within one point at 19-18. But the Eagles followed with a 6-0 run to close out the opening set 25-18. Briar Moore, London Francis and Karla Trautmann Mendez each had 3 kills, while Kelsey Starnes had 3 assists and 6 digs.
• Set two seemingly followed the same script as set one, at least early. The teams were tied at 8-8 before a 9-3 run by the Scarlet Hawks pushed them to their biggest lead of the match at six points, 17-11. The Eagles responded with an 8-2 run to forge a tie at 19-19. The Hawks would take the lead three more times, with the last lead coming at 22-21. Edgewood however came back and held set-point on four separate occasions before finally closing out set two 28-26 for a 2-0 match lead. Moore and Maria Fernanda Alcantara each had four kills in the set, while Sasami Cavan had 13 assists and one service ace.
• The Scarlet Hawks found momentum in set three for their best performance of the match. With the teams continuing to trade points early, the Scarlet Hawks were able to pull ahead 14-11. Edgewood battled back, and held a 21-20 lead late in the set. Illinois Tech pulled back in front 24-22, on the verge of set point. The Eagles would not go quietly, using a 2-0 advantage to tie the set at 24-24. But Illinois Tech would recover to win the next two points for a 26-24 set three victory, and cutting their match deficit to 2-1. Francis paced the Hawks with five kills, while Cavan added eight more assists. Victoria Aspurez had three combined blocks.
• A service error by Edgewood gave the Scarlet Hawks their final lead of the fourth set, leading 5-4. The Eagles quickly erased that lead with a 15-4 tear to move in front 19-8.The Scarlet Hawks would use a 8-4 run to cut their deficit to 23-16, but the Eagles closed out set four and the match with a 2-0 run for the 25-16 set and match victory. Moore, Francis and Trautmann Mendez each had two kills, with Cavan adding five more assists.

Scarlet Hawk Standouts

• Moore led the Hawks with 11 kills while adding 12 digs.
• Francis was second with 10 kills and led with a .269 attack percentage.
• Trautmann Mendez added 8 kills to go along with 2 combined blocks.
• Cavan lead Illinois Tech with 30 assists.
• Kelsey Starnes was the digs leader with 17 and led in service aces with 3.
• Aspurez had 4 combined blocks.

Eagles Watch

• Ashley Bruehlman led both teams with 15 kills and a .333 attack percentage. She also added 4 service aces and 11 digs.
• Abigail Hoffmann added 11 kills, 16 assists and 12 digs.
• Abbey Falk led with 7 block assists.
• Abbey Eivins with 16 assists and 13 digs.

Inside The Box Score

• The match featured 46 tie scores and 18 lead changes.
• Attack errors proved to be the difference in the match, as Illinois Tech had 32 errors for a .091 attack percentage. Edgewood had 17 errors and a .168 attack percentage.

2023 Recap
The Scarlet Hawks finish the season 7-19 overall, with a record of 6-7 in the NACC. However, the team finished with 4 wins in their last seven matches played, including a 3-game winning streak to close out the regular season and earn the 8th and final seed in the postseason tournament.

Team Statistics: As a team, the Scarlet Hawks tallied 971 kills with a .125 attack percentage, achieving 10.3 kills per set. In setting, the Hawks had 901 assists and 9.6 assists per set. In serves, they had 200 service aces for a 2.1 service aces per set average. On defense, the Hawks tallied 1,526 digs for a 16.2 digs per set average, while achieving 118 combined blocks for a 1.3 blocks per set average.

Individual Leaders: Briar Moore led with 192 kills. Sasami Cavan led in assist with 438 and service aces with 49. Defensively, Kelsey Starnes paced with 366 digs while Karla Trautmann Mendez had 46 blocks.

Congratulations to the senior class of Briar Moore, Kelsey Starnes, Emily Graham, Maria Fernanda Alcantar and Stephanie Nguyen on their Scarlet Hawk careers.