Volleyball Falls at IC Friday

Scots return home for final two matches of regular season

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (10/28/2023) — The Monmouth College volleyball team lost in three sets at Illinois College on Friday night in their final road match of the regular season. The 25-15, 25-21, 25-8 loss puts the Scots at 10-12 overall and 4-3 in MWC play with two matches left.

The first set bounced back and forth early with Monmouth's first two points coming on kills from senior Amanda Dybal (Apex, North Carolina). Savannah Robinson (Delavan, Illinois) gave the Scots a 4-2 lead with two straight aces. However, IC won five straight points before extending the lead to 10-6. Monmouth closed two within two at 11-9 and 15-13 but IC went on a 4-point run for a 19-13 lead. The Scots won a point out of the timeout before IC again won four straight to lead 23-15. Zoe Nizzia (Pekin, Illinois) got a kill but the set ended on the next point with IC winning 25-15.

The Scots started the second set with a point on an IC error and also led 2-1. Down 4-2, Nizzia got a kill before the teams traded points with IC leading 6-4. It was still a two-point lead for IC at 11-9 before they went on two runs to push the lead to 17-9 and 20-13. Nizzia and Layne Wright (Davenport, Iowa) had kills and Wright added an ace as the Scots closed the gap. A kill by Dybal made it 23-20 IC but the teams traded points from there with the hosts taking the set 25-21.

The third set was all IC. They jumped out to a 3-0 lead and extended to a 7-1 lead. Wright and Dybal got kills for the Scots but IC won seven of nine points to lead 14-3. After a kill from Delaney Scheidenhelm (New Berlin, Illinois) IC pushed the lead to 18-4. Dybal's ace made it 20-5 and the hosts finished it off at 25-8.

Dybal, Nizzia and Wright all led the Scots with six kills. Paige Bergschneider (Alexander, Illinois) had 17 assists. Nizzia had 11 digs while Robinson added eight. Alana Robertson (Mapleton, Illinois) had four blocks while Robinson had three aces.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Friday's match was the fourth straight on the road, all in conference, for the Scots and they went 2-2 in that stretchThe Scots are in fifth place in the MWC and can make the conference tournament with a Nov. 4 home win over Grinnell, if the Pioneers also lose to Lake Forest on SaturdayMonmouth will play a non-conference home match against Eureka on Tuesday at 7 p.m.