Posted: Sep 09, 2023

Eagles Finish 3-1 at Kirkwood Invitational

The annual Kirkwood Invitational returned to Johnson Hall this weekend. In addition to #6 Kirkwood, the games this weekend featured some of the best teams in the country (#2 Johnson County, #4 Parkland College, #7 Heartland College, #16 Illinois Central, #17 Lincoln Land, and RV McHenry County). The star-packed event allowed fans to get a double-feature of these elite teams competing against one another, and the matches did not disappoint.

Friday, Kirkwood faced up against #7 Heartland Community College. The Eagles and the Hawks battled from start to finish, not allowing the other team to find a large enough lead to give room for comfort. The Eagles were able to pull away enough to win by 7 points in the first set. In the second, Kirkwood was able to squeak out a win 25-23. But Heartland would respond, winning the third set 27-25 in an electric performance between both teams. The electricity poured into the 4^th set for both teams, but the Eagles flew a little higher and hit a little harder, propelling them to a 25-20 win in the set and a 3-1 victory in the match.

Following the Heartland victory, Kirkwood had a much tougher test going against #4 Parkland College. Parkland had the sharper edge to start the game, quickly jumping out to a significant lead. Their relentless defense exhausted the Kirkwood attack, and the Eagles couldn't recover in the first set. Grace Embretson (S) and Ava Harris-Shepherd (MB), both of whom were coming off injuries, made their first return to play and did their best to give the Kirkwood Eagles a spark of life. Despite a much better effort from Kirkwood over the next two sets, Parkland maintained their level of play with high-level net protection (17 blocks) and the Eagles would lose in 3 sets (12-25, 20-25, 21-25). Emma Cross led the attack with 11 kills and Lily Van Severen led the defense with 14 digs.

Heading into Saturday, Kirkwood was itching to make up for their previous outing. Lincoln Land, the #17 team in the country, saw an opportunity to take down a top 10 team to further reinforce a seat at the table. The Loggers came out swinging hard, jumping out to an early lead in the first set. The Eagles slowly battled their way back to have a chance at winning the set. Errors in serving and in communication for the Eagles gave the Loggers some easy points to secure the first set, winning 25-21. Over the following three sets, both teams would battle back and forth. The Eagles won the second and third set by scores of 25-21 and 25-20, respectively. The Loggers played their way to win the 4^th set, forcing both teams to play a 5^th set. Lincoln Land jumped out to an early 4-1 lead and forced Coach Brown to call a timeout to make sure the Eagles on the floor were all flying in the same direction. Lincoln Land was the first to hit 8, triggering the teams to switch sides with a score of 8-4. After switching sides, the Eagles found the flow behind timely blocks, demonstrative kills, and relentless defense to keep the possession alive. Kirkwood would win the 5^th set by a score of 15-13. Makayla Howard led all Eagles with 17 kills, targeted 51 times for a 0.225 hitting percentage. Defensive specialists, Addy Grimm and Maggie Lueck, caused disarray for the Loggers with 3 aces apiece. Lily Van Severen (LIB) had a ridiculous performance with 25 digs, some of which made the Loggers scratch their heads wondering how she made that play. Teamwork at the net allowed the Eagles to record 14 block assists for the match.

After taking a game off to recover, the Eagles jumped right back into the gauntlet taking on #16 Illinois Central in the concluding match of the 2023 Kirkwood Invitational. After an early slow start, the Eagles found some momentum building with spectacular plays one right after another, and won the set 25-13. Illinois Central would make a response of their own in the second set with the help of receiving errors and serving errors from the Eagles and they would win 25-20. Tied at 1-1 going into the third set, both teams were looking to make a push to gain the advantage. The Eagles found a way to make a push at a critical point and they won the 3^rd set 25-18. In the 4^th, Kirkwood's energy started peaking for the match and their play took all of the energy away from Illinois Central, led by a timely kill from Ava Morris. Any other chance Central had was ended by a huge block by Emma Cross. Led by aces from libero, Lily Van Severen (5 for the match) and Alyssa Tegeler (3 for the match), the Kirkwood Eagles won convincingly in the 4^th set by a score of 25-12 and secured their 2^nd win of the day.

Kirkwood had a balanced attack against Illinois Central:

Makayla Howard – 10 kills, 0.368 hitting %
Emma Cross – 8 kills
Ava Harris-Shepherd – 8 kills, 0.333 hitting %
Alyssa Tegeler – 6 kills, 0.235 hitting %
Ava Morris – 5 kills
Lexi Hearn – 3 kills

Lily Van Severen, Sydney Matthias, and Maggie Lueck led the clean-up crew with 13 digs, 11 digs, and 9 digs, respectively.

Kirkwood Volleyball finished the Invitational with 3 wins and 1 loss, giving them an overall record of 13-2. The Eagles return to action this Wednesday in Johnson Hall at 6:30 to face off against Marshalltown Community College.