Scots Fall to Grinnell in Five Sets Saturday

Rematch set for Friday in MWC Tournament semifinals

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (11/10/2024) — The Monmouth College volleyball team forced a fifth set from two sets down but lost their final regular season match at Grinnell College on Saturday 26-24, 25-22, 24-26, 24-26,15-12. The Fighting Scots (19-10, 6-2) will be the #3 seed in next week's Midwest Conference Tournament, facing Grinnell (20-8, 7-1) at 4:30 p.m. on Friday at Cornell.

Kaylee Celuis (Annawan, Illinois) led the Scots with 20 kills while Layne Wright (Davenport, Iowa) had 13 and Lauren Aldrich (Wauconda, Illinois) added nine.Tyla Mattson (Morton, Illinois) had 31 assists and Paige Bergschneider (Alexander, Illinois) had 21. Savanna Robinson (Delavan, Illinois) led the Scots with 20 digs, one more than Celus. Melina Teunis (Grand Haven, Michigan) had five blocks and Chloe Strachan (Reynolds, Illinois) had four. Mattson had two aces while Alana Robertson (Mapleton, Illinois), Wright, Robinson and Bergschneider each had one.

After falling behind 2-0, Celus had five kills to lead the Scots to a win in the third set. Teunis, Aldrich and Wright all had three kills in the set while Strachan had two blocks. The set was tied at 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24. Celus had a kill for set point and Grinnell called timeout. With Wright serving, Strachan won the set with a block,

Celus kept it going in the fourth set with six more kills and Robertson had an ace in the set. After taking the lead at 8-7, Monmouth didn't trail again. After the Pioneers won four straight points to tie the set at 24, Celus had a kill and Strachan finished off the set with a kill.

The fifth set was tied at 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 before the Pioneers won two straight. The Scots cut the lead to 12-11 on a kill by Strachan and to 13-12 on a kill by Celus. Grinnell won the final two points to take the match.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Celus has at least 20 kills in eight matches this season ... She has at least 10 kills in 21 of her 27 matches played ... Wright haa 1000 career kills ... She is also tied for eighth on the single-season list with 61 aces ... Bergschneider passed Tina Forth for sixth on the career assists list with 1,763 ... The match had 14 lead changes and 34 ties ... Each set had at least three ties and one lead change ... Grinnell has won eight straight in the series ... The teams play again Friday in the semifinals of the MWC Tournament ... The winner advances to Saturday's final against either Cornell or Illinois College.