Scots Volleyball Sweeps Lawrence on Friday

MWC Finale Set for Saturday

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (10/22/2022) — The Monmouth College volleyball team jumped out to a big lead on Friday night and never looked back with a 25-14, 25-16, 25-17 sweep of Lawrence University. The road win moves the Scots to 10-11 overall and 3-4 in MWC play with another game at Ripon on Saturday.

Lawrence won the first point of the match but that was their only lead in the first set. After the set was tied 2-2, the Scots won 11 points in a row on the serve of Sarah LaHood (East Peoria, Illinois). Amanda Dybal (Apex, North Carolina) had two kills in that run. Lawrence got the lead down to six before Paige Bergschneider (Alexander, Illinois) and Layne Wright (Davenport, Iowa) had back-to-back kills. The Scots went back up by double digits at 21-10 and took the set 25-14 on an error by the Vikings.

Lawrence went up 2-0 in the second set, but once the Scots got even at 2-2, Lawrence didn't lead again. The Scots won 12 points in a row on Wright's serve to go up 12-2 Kenzie Russell (Morton, Illinois) had three kills in a row and five total during that run. After Monmouth took a 16-4 lead, the closest the Vikings got was five points at 20-15. An attack error gave the Scots the set at 25-16.

For the third set in a row, Lawrence took their only lead at 1-0. The set was tied 3-3 before Monmouth won six or seven points to take a 9-4 lead. After the Vikings got the lead to three, Dybal, Russell and CeCe Palladino (Volo, Illinois) had kills to put the Scots up 16-9. Monmouth led 19-16 before putting the hammer down and winning six of the next seven points to take the set 25-17 and sweep the match.

Russell and Dybal led the Scots with nine kills each. Bergschneider had 25 assists on the night while Wright led the team with four aces. Savannah Robinson (Delavan, Illinois) and Wright both had 11 digs and the Scots had three total blocks.

The Scots finish MWC play on Saturday with a 1 p.m. match at Ripon. The Scots final home match of the season is Wednesday when they host Iowa Wesleyan at 6 p.m. Monmouth finishes the regular season next weekend at the Central College Invitational in Pella, Iowa.