Greenville, IL 11/5/2022- The Westminster College volleyball team took on the undefeated Greenville University Panthers in a SLIAC Volleyball Tournament semifinal matchup in Greenville, Illinois.
The Panthers would come out strong and win the first set 25-15. The Blue Jays would respond and win sets two and three 25-23. Greenville and Westminster would battle back and forth in the fourth set with the Panthers coming out on top to force a fifth set and the winner moving on to the SLIAC Volleyball Championship game.
The Jays would get an early 6-2 lead in the fifth set. Greenville would fight back and tie the set at 7-7. Westminster would trade two points for one and held a 13-9 lead. Haley Menke (O'Fallon, Mo. / Fort Zumwalt West) would get a big kill to put the Blue Jays one point away from moving on. The Panthers would answer back with a kill of their own to make it 14-12. The two teams would have a wild rally that resulted in an attacking error by Greenville sending the ball out of bounds, resulting in Westminster winning the set 15-12 and the match 3-2.
Menke and Malena Bixby (New Berlin, IL/New Berlin) led the team in kills with fourteen each. Meghan Nolte (Wentzville, MO / Wentzville) would have thirteen kills in the match. Four different Blue Jays had double-digit digs and Kate Rable (Saint Peters, Mo. / Fort Zumwalt South) had a career-high forty-two assists in the match.
They move on to the championship game at 7:00 PM and will face the winner of Webster University vs Fontbonne University. That game is ongoing.