Jacksonville, IL 9/3/2022- The Westminster College volleyball team was back in action early Saturday for game number three of the Illinois College Invitational. The Blue Jays faced off against the Monmouth College Scots in a five-set thriller. The Jays walked away victorious, winning 3-2 (25-17,22-25,25-23,15-11) improving to 3 and 0 on the season.
The entire match was close from start to finish, really could have gone either way at multiple points throughout. Westminster started the first set, taking a 10-5 lead. The Scots went on a 5-2 run to make it 14-13. Then the Blue Jays rattled off four points in a row capped with a kill from Malena Bixby (New Berlin, IL/ New Berlin)
) to give them an 18-13 lead. They would close the set out with 2 separate three-point runs to take set one, 25-17.
Set number two started much like the first, with the Blue Jays jumping out to a 5-2 lead. The Scots recovered and tied at 6-6. They would take the lead and not look back. Senior hitter Haley Menke (O'Fallon, Mo./ For Zumwalt West) would not be denied getting a kill and starting a 5-2 run Westminster run. With the score 22-24, the run ended after a poor set by the Blue Jays, giving Monmouth the second set, 25-22.
Westminster started fast once again in the third set, starting out with a 15-6 lead. Monmouth went on a 7-1 run and cut the Blue Jays' lead to three points. They would then score five unanswered points to take a 21-20 lead. The Jays would tie it 23-23 after an ace by Gracie Henrikson (Athens, IL / Athens). Unfortunately, the Scots scored the final two points and win set three 25-23 and giving them a 2-1 lead in the match.
The Blue Jays needed to win the fourth set to force a fifth set and a chance to come away with the victory. Things looked bleak early as Monmouth ran out to a 7-3 lead. Westminster would chip away, and the tide would turn halfway through the set. The Jays went on a four-point run to cut the lead to one point, 13-14. The Scots held the Jays at that one-point deficit for the next eight points. Then Sophie Reimer (St. Charles, MO/ Lutheran) would tie at 18-18 after an ace. The Blue Jays would get their first lead of the set on the next play after a big-time block by Eryka Wanyonyi (Columbia, Mo. / Hickman), she would give her squad a 19-18 lead. Monmouth answered with a three-point run to give them some breathing room at 19-21. Back-to-back kills by freshman middle Meghan Nolte (Wentzville, MO / Wentzville) and Wanyonyi tied it once again at 21-21. Mackenzie Lowder (St.Clair, MO / St. Clair), Payton Bledsoe (Mexico, Mo. / Mexico), and Wanyonyi would get three straight kills, giving Westminster a 24-22 lead. The Blue Jays won the fourth set after a Scots service error, 25-23, and forced a fifth and final set.
With the match tied 2-2, it all came down to the fifth set to fifteen. The momentum was with the Blue Jays, but the Scots ended that quickly with a 3-0 start. The two teams would go back and forth from that point until Nolte turned things around, getting a kill and starting 3-0 run by Westminster and giving them an 8-7 lead. Monmouth would tie again at 9-9. The Jays would end the set on a 6 -2 run to win the set 15-11 and match 3-2.
Wanyonyi had nineteen kills and Menke had seventeen. The duo would combine for thirty-six of the Blue Jays' sixty-seven kills in the match. Wanyonyi had a .225 kill percentage while Menke had a .371. Kate Rable collected thirty-seven assists. Henrikson had a team-high twenty digs, followed by Wanyonyis' eighteen.
The Blue Jays improve to 3-0 on the season and they played Illinois College immediately following this game.
