ELSAH ILL.—The Gold and Blue gave their all tonight as they battled two tough teams to five games, beating Illinois College 3-2 and losing to Lincoln Christian 2-3, competing until after midnight.
Against Illinois College, Principia started strong in game one and ended strong in four and five.
Tess Rountree,
Kiersten Andersen and
Christine Nacewicz attacked IC from all over the court, each earning kills in the double digits; Rountree—20, Andersen—15, Nacewicz—10. Principia's defense kept balls from falling, and adjusted to take away IC's right side line shot.
Savanna Sprague stepped up to take 17 digs for the team and produced four aces. Rountree earned 23 digs and Andersen 15 digs. After losing to IC in game two (18-25) and three (17-25), Principia awoke to beat Illinois College 25-10 in game four and 15-10 in game five.
Both Rountree and Andersen had double-doubles in both matches tonight. Against Lincoln Christian's mighty block, Rountree had sixteen kills and Andersen—ten. Lincoln Christian challenged Principia to keep the ball flying with their strong outside hits and fast-paced play. Principia worked to make their own pace, and
Jessyca MacMullin started it off with beautiful deep serves.
Summer Switzer contributed three aces and
Tara Edwards earned 36 assists. Principia started slow against Lincoln Christian with many unforced errors, but came together in game three and four. The time was 10:45 p.m. when Principia decided to wake up and play. Going into game five, Lincoln Christian seemed gone, but came back to win the game and ended the match at 12:05 a.m. Scores of the match were 20-25, 22-25, 25-17, 25-15, 12-15.
Principia fought two tough teams and will return to action Saturday, October 1
st to play Webster and Fontbonne at Fontbonne University.
