Volleyball Sweeps Knox, Clinches MWC Tournament Berth

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (10/31/2024) — The Monmouth College volleyball team clinched a berth in the Midwest Conference Tournament with a 3-0 sweep (25-10, 25-18, 25-17) at Knox on Wednesday night. The Fighting Scots (18-9, 6-1) are assured of finishing no worse than third in the regular season and will play in the MWC semifinals on Friday, Nov. 15. The tournament will be hosted by either Cornell, Grinnell or Monmouth.

"We've been working hard for this moment all season, and we aren't done yet," said head coach Derrick Broekemier. " We were close last year and it was tough to finish where we did. Now we get to go an extra step and it is always nice to come to Knox and be able to get a win in any sport."

The Scots jumped out to a 6-1 lead with Tyla Mattson (Morton, Illinois) and Layne Wright (Davenport, Iowa) serving. Mattson had an early ace while Chloe Strachan (Reynolds, Illinois) provided a kill and Paige Foltz (Vinton, Iowa) had a block. Leading 9-8, Monmouth went on an 8-0 run with Alana Robertson (Mapleton, Illinois) serving. Lauren Aldrich (Wauconda, Illinois) and Foltz had kills to start the run before Wright added one. Robertson had an ace and Wright added a kill for a 17-8 lead. The Scots got an ace from Mattson and four kills by Wright to lead 24-10 before Foltz finished off the set.

Wright and Savannah Robinson (Delavan, Illinois) served early in the second set with the Scots going up 4-1 and 8-4. Robertson added an ace and Aldrich picked up another kill. Strachan had a pair of kills before Kaylee Celus (Annawan, Illinois) served the Scots to a 21-15 lead. Wright powered home two more kills and finished off the set at 25-18 with a kill.

Mattson had another ace to get the third set going and kills from Strachan and Celus made it 8-5. Aldrich and Wright picked up kills for a 13-7 lead with another block from Foltz as well. Paige Bergschneider (Alexander, Illinois) served with Robertson picking up a kill and Celus made it 20-15 with a kill. Wright and Foltz kept the run going with kills and Foltz made it match point with another kill. Mattson served an ace to finish off Knox at 25-17 and officially clinch the MWC Tournament berth.

Wright led the way with 16 kills while Foltz had eight. Bergschneider had 19 assists and Mattson added 13. Mattson delivered four aces and Robertson had two. Robinson led Monmouth with 11 digs and Foltz had a career-high seven blocks.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Wright had 16 kills, the second most for a Monmouth player in a 3-set match this season ... She only had one attack error and hit .484 ... Wright passed Jessica Travis for seventh on the career kills list with 978 ... Monmouth went to the MWC tournament in 2021 when this year's seniors were freshmen ... Monmouth has 18 wins, the most since the 2012 team won 19 ... The Scots have won seven straight against Knox dating back to a loss in 2017 ... Monmouth is 71-21 all-time against Knox ... The Scots have the weekend off and play out of conference at Webster on Tuesday with a 7 p.m. start ... The final regular season MWC matchup is Nov. 9 at Grinnell