#6 Eagles Improve to 7-1 Conference Record
Cedar Rapids, IA- Volleyball returned to Johnson Hall tonight after an elite 3-match performance over the weekend in Boone, Iowa. Returning to the top-10 nationally, #6 Kirkwood faced up against the Trojans of Northern Iowa Area Community College. Coming into tonight's match, the Eagles possessed a 23-6 record overall and a 6-1 conference record and the Trojans came in with a 10-18 record and a 1-6 conference record.
After a slow start for the Eagles in the first set, they started to find their groove at the 20-point mark and then never looked back. The Eagles would sweep the NIACC Trojans in 3 sets by scores of 25-19, 25-12, and 25-14. Kirkwood improves to 24-6 overall and 7-1 in conference.
The usual suspects led the charge tonight for the Eagle attack. Ava Morris led all attackers in kills and hitting percentage with 9 kills hitting 0.421. Emma Cross was right behind with 8 kills hitting 0.222. Lexi Hearn buried 7 kills hitting 0.313. Emma Meester and Alyssa Tegeler both tallied 6 kills hitting 0.333 and 0.267, respectively. Grace Embretson and Sydney Matthias split the dish tonight with a combined 28 assists, 15 and 13, respectively. Maggie Lueck's serves danced around the defense tonight giving her 4 aces. Lily Van Severen and Alyssa Tegeler got in on the fun as well with each of them recording a pair of aces.
Defensively tonight, Lily Van Severen and Sydney Matthias mitigated the Trojan attack with a combined 21 digs, 13 for Van Severen and 8 for Matthias. The front line for the Eagles tallied 10 block assists and 1 solo block coming from Sophie Gaffney that seemingly crushed the Trojan spirit.
Kirkwood Volleyball begins a 2-week stretch of road games before they come back to Johnson Hall, a great test for the team as the end of the season approaches. They take on Region IX newcomers, Western Iowa Tech Community College, this Thursday at 7:00 p.m. in Sioux City, Iowa.
