Volleyball Wins Critical Conference Home Match Over Kaskaskia
Wednesday night at Brewer Gymnasium the Lady Vols won an important matchup with conference rival Kaskaskia College. Even though the vols are a young, freshmen heavy team, they were able to overcome a much more experienced Kaskaskia squad with a 29-31, 25-15, 25-16, 25-17 victory.
As usual this season, the Vols displayed a balanced offense with everyone making contributions. Kim Hall led the team with 12 kills. Bryleigh Buchanan contributed 11, and Olivia Hallet finished with 10. Hall and Hallet also were an important part of the defense with a combined 18 digs. Sophomore Setter Taytum Murdock had a very productive match with 18 assists and a team-leading 3 aces. Freshman Libero Alanis Below from Advance led the team defense with 17 digs for the match.
The match started off with a very tight, back and forth game one. After several lead changes, Kaskaskia finished strong with a 31-29 win. However, the Vols responded well to adversity on their home court. The team rebounded with a much more focused effort in the next 3 games.
Coach Burnside believes, "this was an opportunity for our team to grow and learn to face pressure on our home court. Sometimes a young team will underestimate an opponent and come out just a bit flat. That's exactly what happened in game one. However, I was happy to see the positive response from our team from that point forward. We picked up our intensity and communication which totally turned the match around."