BROOKINGS, SD - The Western Illinois Volleyball team had their first two games of the SDSU Invitational on Friday, September 4th, against South Dakota State and Bradley.
Match 1
The first match was at South Dakota State, ended with a final score of 0-3, with each set ending 15-25, 22-25, and 22-25 respectively.
The first set was one where the Leathernecks started out down 0-5, which proved to be a very difficult hole to climb out of. The team was able to fight back and try to bring the score back to even, but was unable to get the job done.
Western Illinois played back and forth with South Dakota State each of the last two sets, with both sets having multiple ties/lead changes. Ultimately, the Leathernecks were not able to go on the late run needed to win either set, and the team dropped both with identical 22-25 scores, meaning that the final score was 3 sets SDSU to 0 sets Western Illinois.
The Leathernecks were led in kills by Georgia Haynes with 9, and Emilia Kouri and Kennedy Adair having 7 and 6 kills respectively. Both Jaleah Bauss and Alysia Perez had 12 assists, which was tied for the team lead and made them the only girls with more than 3 assists for the Leathernecks. Grace Ulatowski had 18 digs which led the team by a wide margin, with the next closest number being 9 by Kennedy Adair. Hillary Estes led the team with 3 block assists as well, with Georgia Haynes not far behind with 2 block assists.
Sylvie Zgonc led SDSU with 20 kills, the only Jackrabbit to have above 10 kills. Brooke Larson and Rylee Martin both had 19 assists, which was the Co-lead for the Jackrabbits. Joslyn Richardson led with 16 digs, and Claire Logeais led with 4 blocks.
Match 2
The second match of the day was against Bradley, and was one that the Leathernecks fell by a score of 0-3. Much like the match against South Dakota State, the team improved each set, with the two final sets having multiple ties/lead changes, but the first set did end by a score of 15-25.
The first set was one where Western Illinois was down 6-1 early, and was unable to go on a run to cultivate a comeback.The second set saw the Leathernecks jump out to an early 6-4 lead, and were tied throughout the set, including scores of 16-16 and 20-20, but a late run by Bradley saw them capture the set 21-25.
The third and final set of the match ended by a final score of 22-25, and saw the Leathernecks go on a late run, being down 16-23 at one point, before going on a 6-2 run, which ultimately was too late for Western Illinois in this match.
The Leathernecks were led in this match by Hillary Estes in kills with 6, and followed by 3 different girls with 5 kills a piece, and 2 more girls with 3 kills. Jaleah Bauss had 15 assists, which led the Leathernecks, and Alysia Perez was not far behind with 9 assists. Kennedy Adair led the team with 7 digs, followed by Grace Ulatowski with 6 digs. The Leathernecks were able to hit .310 as a team, which has been the best mark of the season thus far.
Gracie Furlong led Bradley with 15 kills, the only Brave who surpassed the 10 kill mark. Maria Drapp had 30 assists in the game, which was by far the most for the Braves, with nobody else having more than 5. Gracie Furlong also led the team with 12 digs, with the next highest being Megan Depoorter.
Western Illinois will be back in action on Saturday, September 5th vs Northern Arizona, which will be their final game of the SDSU Invitational.
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