Kirkwood Sweeps Southwestern at Home
Cedar Rapids, IA- The Kirkwood Eagle Volleyball team returned to Johnson Hall tonight for a conference match-up against Southwestern Community College. Last weekend, the Eagles split 4 games at the Parkland College Fall Challenge and tonight, they were eager to find their flow again on the home floor. Southwestern battled the best they could, but the Eagles proved to be too much for the Spartans, walking away with the victory in 3 sets (25-17, 25-18, 25-14) – their 20th win of the season.
The Kirkwood attack returned to proper form with 5 players recording hitting percentages above 0.300. Emma Cross found her stride with 10 kills on 18 attacks (0.444). Lexi Hearn was right behind her with 9 kills on 22 attempts (0.318). Alyssa Tegeler added 7 kills on 11 attacks (0.545). Emma Meester, who was firing rockets all night, put away 6 kills on 14 attacks (0.357). Finally, Sophie Gaffney got in on the fun with 4 kills on 9 attacks (0.333). Grace Embretson and Sydney Matthias split the dish tonight as the setters where they recorded 18 and 15 assists, respectively. Defensively, the Eagles did a good job spreading the digs across all active players tonight with Lily Van Severen leading the way with 10 digs.
Kirkwood heads to enemy territory this weekend where they will compete in the DMACC Tournament in Boone, Iowa. Friday, the Eagles are in a matinee match-up at 2:00 PM where they will look to fend off Heartland Community College, the #8 team in the country. Saturday, the Eagles have an early bird special taking on the #1 team in the country, Johnson County, at 8:00 AM. They will then quickly turn around to take on Moraine Valley Community College at 10:00 AM.
The Eagles improve to 20-6 overall, 6-1 in conference. They are 8-1 in Johnson Hall, 3-3 on the road, and 9-2 at neutral sites.
