#4 Eagles Win Regional Quarterfinal
Playoff volleyball for Region XI kicked off tonight with a first-round match-up between your Kirkwood Eagles and Southeastern Community College.
Prior to tonight's game, the Kirkwood Eagle volleyball team ended the regular season with their 30thwin and a #4 national ranking.
Southeastern entered Johnson Hall looking for revenge after the Eagles defeated them in October in West Burlington. Despite their desire to take down Kirkwood, the Eagles proved to be too much for the Black Hawks and Kirkwood would go on to sweep Southeastern in 3 sets (27-25, 25-21, 25-21).
Eagle fans packed Johnson Hall with a championship-level electricity in the air that kept everyone engaged from start to finish. Southeastern came out strong in the first set with each team trading powerful kills and sacrificing bodies to get digs, doing whatever it takes to get their respective team a point. Southeastern saw a lead as big as 4 points, but the Eagles would battle back to tie it and eventually take the lead just before the 20-point mark. Going past the 25-point mark, Kirkwood was able to put together back-to-back points to give them a 27-25 win in the first set.
In the second set, Southeastern jumped out to an early 3-point lead but Kirkwood would quickly respond to tie the game back up. The set saw 3 lead changes happen as they approached the 20-point mark. With the set tied at 18, Southeastern committed back-to-back violations (service violation and net violation) that gave Kirkwood a 2-point edge and the Eagles never looked back, winning 25-21.
In the third set, Kirkwood jumped out to an early 2-0 lead starting with a Grace Embretson ace followed by a thunderous kill from Emma Meester. Southeastern would respond to tie the game and then keep responding any time Kirkwood had the lead. Nearing the mid-point of the set, Southeastern would take the lead, but cheeky kills coming off of fake sets from Grace Embretson and Sydney Matthias would throw the Black Hawks off balance and shift the momentum back in Kirkwood's favor. With a service error on match point from Southeastern, Kirkwood won the third set 25-21 and secured a spot in the Region XI semi-final.
Kirkwood balanced out the attack, but two Eagles crossed the 10-kill threshold. Leading the team in kills, Emma Meester buried 13 kills on 27 attempts for a 0.296 hitting percentage. Emma Cross was close behind, putting away 11 kills on 26 attempts for a 0.231 hitting percentage. Coach Dave Brown tactically utilized Grace Embretson (22 assists) and Sydney Matthias (14 assists) as setters who combined for 36 assists. The team service tonight had the Black Hawk defense in shambles with 7 aces: Lily Van Severen (1), Grace Embretson (3), Lexi Hearn (2), Alyssa Tegeler (1). Defensively on the back row, Lily Van Severen led the way with 18 digs followed by Lexi Hearn with 9 digs and Sydney Matthias with 8 digs. The front line displayed great teamwork, adding in 18 block assists for 9 blocks on the box score.
Kirkwood volleyball will play in the Region XI semi-final this Saturday at 3:00 PM in Boone, IA at DMACC where they will on the 3-seed, Iowa Central and look to punch their ticket to the Region XI championship.