ELSAH, ILL. -- Oh my, did volleyball start slow tonight?! The first few points went like this – ball handling error, serve receive error, serve error, serve receive error, defensive error – you get the point?! Well, the good news is that Prin kept working at it and slowly, but surely they turned it around to win the match 3-1.
In game one Prin was down 10-17, but kept clawing at the door. Eight very uncharacteristic serve receive errors really took their toll on Prin's ability to get their offense going. The Panthers showed some nice resolve to come back, but it was a little too late as LCU ended up winning game one 25-22.
In game two Prin got off to a 6-2 lead behind the strong serving of
Savanna Sprague and bold hitting of
Tess Rountree. Prin committed too many errors mid-game opening the door and narrowing their lead to 13-11. Some great play from
Lily Richards seemed to light up the Prin side, and that helped the Panthers pick up the pace and take game two 25-17.
Game three was character building. It was back and forth the entire way thanks to a yucky seven missed serves. Freshman
Cha Cha Fisher came in with a great energy and earned four kills to put a smile back on the Panthers' face. Tess, Lily and
Sierra Sprague added to the offensive goodness with smart and powerful kills leading to a 25-23 win.
Game four was tied until 10-10, and then Prin successfully built little bursts of momentum to widen the lead and finally to finish the match with a 25-19 game four. Offensively Prin struggled again with seven hitting errors along with three service errors. We seemed determined to make this difficult, but in the end a win is nice to have!
Tess Rountree had a stellar match with 30 kills and 30 digs, hitting .431.
Lily Richards was strong tonight putting down a career best 11 kills and mixing her offense up well.
Sierra Sprague was solid with 7 kills and led the squad with 5 aces. Solo blocks were tallied by Tess, Sierra,
Molly Moser, and Jess Bushong.
The Panthers take on Spalding right here in Elsah this Thursday at 6pm – yep, another early match at 6pm! We would love to have you come and cheer us on.
