FULTON, Mo. - Westminster volleyball rallied back from a set one loss to defeat Iowa Wesleyan 3-1, remaining undefeated in the conference for their home opener.
The Blue Jays improve to 7-3 overall and 5-0 in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
"Despite starting out slow, the team responded well to the early loss," said Westminster Head Coach Natalia Koryzna. "I'm proud of them for their resilience tonight."
The Blue Jays remained close to the Tigers throughout set one, but eventually fell 25-23 to open the match.
Westminster took a quick 7-1 lead in the second set, including three kills from Allie Kennebeck, to get back on track. The Blue Jays couldn't pull away with the Tigers steadily gaining points for the rest of the match, coming as close as 20-17, before Westminster took the 25-21 victory.
A back-and-forth battle opened the third set, with the opening 10 points featuring five ties, until Westminster pulled away on two straight service aces from Bridget Ringwald to go up 17-11. Westminster went up by as many as eight, but the Tigers continued to hang around to force Westminster to make no mistakes to earn the win, pulling off the 25-18 victory to go up 2-1 in the match.
The fourth set was another back-and-forth between the teams to open, but three straight Iowa Weseylan errors helped the Blue Jays pull ahead 10-7. The Tigers continued to stay within two points of the Blue Jays until Natalie Needy recorded two straight kills to put Westminster up 18-14. Westminster tallied the final four points of the match on kills from Teresa Becker and Kennebeck to secure the victory.
Kennebeck led the way for the offense with 21 kills and four block assists, while Madisyn Matthews assisted on 27 of the team's 50 kills. Ringwald led the defense with 26 digs.
Westminster travels to Jacksonville, Illinois, Saturday to face Eureka and Blackburn in conference play.
