SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Rockhurst hit .358 for the match as it topped the University of Illinois Springfield volleyball team, 3-0 (-15, -19, -11) on Sunday afternoon at TRAC.
The Hawks improved to 23-3 on the year and 14-2 in GLVC play, while UIS drops to 9-16 and 2-14 in league play. The Prairie Stars host Oakland City on Wednesday in their final home game of the season. Match time is set for 6 p.m.
Senior
Shelby Geers (Urbana, Ill.) once again led UIS with 10 kills. Freshman
Lexi Hall (Champaign, Ill.) tallied 19 assists on UIS' 30 kills and sophomore
Kayla Katarzynski (Winfield, Ill.) dug up 11 balls. As a team, UIS hit just .080 on 30 kills with 22 errors on 100 attempts.
In set one, the team's traded points back and forth in the early goings until Rockhurst sparked an 11-3 run to take a 19-11 advantage. A kill from
Nikki Madoch (Algonquin, Ill.) followed by a Hawk miscue put the match back in UIS' favor, but Rockhurst quickly corrected its mistakes and held the Prairie Stars to just four more points to win the frame. Rockhurst hit .583, committing just two errors on 24 swings in set one.
Set two swung quickly in the Hawks favor as they led 16-7, but UIS went on 11-5 run to pull within 21-18 thanks to four kills from Geers and three nicely timed blocks. Three straight kills gave Rockhurst the distance it needed to secure the second stanza, 25-19.
The Hawks led from start to finish in the final frame as they jumped out to a 6-1 advantage. UIS pulled to within two on a kill from Geers, at 7-5, but it was as close as the Prairie Stars would get. UIS has just seven kills in the final set and 28 attempts with seven errors.
For the Hawks, Morgan Rietzke and Alyssa Arnold each tallied 10 kills wtih Arnold narrowly missing a double-double with nine digs. For the match, Rockhurst hit .358 on 95 attempts with 11 errors and 45 total kills. Setter Whitney Kostal had 34 helpers, while tallying two aces and four kills.
After the break in conference play, UIS returns to GLVC action on the road to wrap up the season. The Prairie Stars head to Lewis on Friday, Nov. 7 before traveling to UW-Parkside on Saturday. The opponents were both victorious in the earlier meetings this season.
