Scots Volleyball Sweeps Lawrence on Senior Night

Monmouth Moves into Fourth Place With Win

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (10/23/2021) — The Monmouth College volleyball team took a big step toward the Midwest Conference tournament with a 25-21, 25-19, 25-11 sweep of Lawrence on Friday night. The Scots improved to 4-3 in MWC action as they kicked off Homecoming weekend while also celebrating five seniors.

The win, coupled with Lake Forest's loss at Illinois College on Friday puts the Scots and Foresters tied for the fourth and final tournament spot with three losses. At 4-3 to Lake Forest's 3-3, the Scots have the head-to-head tiebreaker thanks to an Oct. 2 road win. Lake Forest plays at 3-4 Knox Saturday and heads to first place Grinnell next weekend while the Scots finish conference play Saturday morning against 1-5 Ripon.

"It is always super fun to kick off homecoming weekend with a win," said coach Emily Thebeau. "It was also senior night so great to have a win for them as well."

The Scots got off to a slow start on Friday. They steadily pulled away from the Vikings though and took the first set 25-21. Sarah LaHood (East Peoria, Illinois) led the Scots with five kills in the first set while Layne Wright (Davenport, Iowa) added four.

Monmouth got off to a much quicker start in the second set and forced Lawrence to call an early timeout. The Vikings hung tough through the middle of the set before the Scots finished it off at 25-19. LaHood again led the way with four kills in the second set.

"it is a lot of fun to watch us build energy once they get going," said Thebeau. "Once they do that I know they are in control of the whole game. It is great to watch the whole team contribute and be part of the win and that is so important for our team."

The third set started off with Lawrence grabbing the first three points. But from there it was all Scots as they forced timeouts at 7-4 and 15-6 before sprinting to a 25-11 win. Senior Megan Kimble (Farmington, Illinois) finished off the match with a kill.

LaHood finished with a team-leading 11 kills while Wright had seven. Karlie Drish (Milan, Illinois) led the Scots with 27 assists and Kaylee Woodard (Monmouth, Illinois) had 15 digs. Wright had five aces while Loryn Beal (Pontiac, Illinois) added three. The Scots finished with 10 aces and five blocks in the match while hitting .271.

"These seniors are all so important, they have been very dedicated to the program," said Thebeau. "It was fun to get to watch them get tonight as a celebration."