Chicago, Ill. - In their final home matches of the regular season, the Illinois Tech women's volleyball team earned a Senior Day tri-match split, sweeping the Marian Sabres 3-0 in a conference matchup while falling to the Elmhurst Bluejays 3-0 in a non-conference match in the finale Saturday afternoon at the Keating Center. In the middle match, Elmhurst swept Marian 3-0.
With the win over Marian, the Scarlet Hawks improved to 6-6 in Northern Athletics Collgiate Conference (NACC) play. With one conference match remaining, the Hawks appeared to have unofficially clinched the 7th seed in the NACC Women's Volleyball Tournament, by virtue of their tie-breaker over 5-7 Dominican, who the Hawks defeated head-to-head last week.
Prior to the opening match against Marian, the team honored their departing seniors,
Grace Reckamp and
Sasami Cavan, along with their families, as part of the team's Senior Day celebration.
How It Happened
Match One (Illinois Tech 3 - Marian 0)
- Set One - Illinois Tech 25 - Marian 21: The Scarlet Hawks held a 9-point lead at 17-8, but the Sabres went on a 12-6 run to close within 3 points at 23-20. The Hawks would regroup, however, and won 2 of the final 3 points for the set one victory. Ana Jones paced the Hawks with 4 kills.
- Set Two - Illinois Tech 25 - Marian 19: Marian opened the second set with a 6-1 lead before the Scarlet Hawks countered with an 11--4 run to take the lead 12-10. The Sabres would pull within a point at 12-11 before the Hawks chipped away, taking 13 of the final 21 points to increase their match lead to 2-0. London Francis led the Hawks with 5 kills.
- Set Three - Illinois Tech 25 - Marian 21: The Scarlet Hawks led throughout much of the first half of set three, including a 5-point lead at 6-1, before Marian responded with a 13-8 run to tie the set at 14-14. The Hawks would never trail from this point, closing out set three, and subsequently the match, with an 11-7 run. Karla Trautmann Mendez led the Hawks with 7 kills.
Match Two (Elmhurst 3 - Illinois Tech 0)
- Set One - Elmhurst 25 - Illinois Tech 15: The Bluejays started the opening set with an 11-point lead at 15-4. The Hawks would use a mini 4-0 run to cut their deficit to 7 points at 15-8. But a 10-7 run by the Bluejays secured the opening set win. Grace Reckamp had 3 kills for Illinois Tech.
- Set Two - Elmhurst 25 - Illinois Tech 21: The second set was the most competitive of the three sets, with 6 tie scores recorded. An early 5-1 deficit by the Scarlet Hawks was negated when the team used a 16-12 advantage to tie the match at 17-17. A 4-0 counter by Elmhurst put the Bluejays in front 21-17. The Hawks would pull within 1 point at 21-20, but a 5-1 finish by Elmhurst gave them the 2-0 match lead. Trautmann Mendez and Victoria Aspurez each paced the Hawks with 3 kills a piece.
- Set Three - Elmhurst 25 - Illinois Tech 11: The Bluejays built up several 11-point advantages throughout the third set, including at 21-10. Elmhurst finished with a 4-1 run for the final set margin of victory.
Scarlet Hawk Standouts (combined matches)
Inside The Box Scores (all matches)
- Marian's Ryanne Jasica and Kylie Krueger each had 10 kills on the afternoon
- Elmhurst's Elise Rossing led all players with 19 kills on the day, to go along with a 3.17 kills per set average and a .536 attack percentage
- Elmhurst had 21 service aces; Illinois Tech had 12 service aces; Marian had 5 service aces
- Elmhurst had an attack percentage of .319, followed by Illinois Tech at .137 and Marian at .105
Up Next
The Scarlet Hawks will make the short trip to River Forest, Illinois on Wednesday, November 6th, when they travel to Concordia Chicago to take on the Cougars at 6:00pm in a conference matchup and the final regular season match of the season.
