#9 Kirkwood Beats #6 Illinois Central on the Road

East Peoria, IL- The #9 ranked Kirkwood Eagles traveled to East Peoria on Saturday for a battle with the #6 Illinois Central Cougars. The Eagles were coming fresh off a 3-0 victory versus the #9 ranked team in NJCAA DI Volleyball, Indian Hills. The Eagles were looking to continue their solid play and capitalize on the momentum built from their win on Wednesday. 

The first set was a back and forth affair that had the Eagles pulling away late in the set. Kirkwood would hit .121 as a team in the first and take the set 25-22. The Cougars would come right back and flip the tables on the Eagles in the second and third sets, taking them -17 and -22. Kirkwood would come back in the 4th however, fending off set point, and taking the set in extra points at 27-25. The decisive 5th set saw the Eagles jump out to an early lead at the side switch, leading 8-3. The Cougars would push, however, and bring the game back within one at 7-8. But resilicency by Kirkwood allowed them to pull away take the set and match 15-12.

Kirkwood was led in assists by freshman Kaci Johnson and sophomore Sydney Matthias with 29 and 24 respectively through the 5 set match. Johnson also had the most total attempts swinging on the team, hitting .250 on 32 attemps with 12 kills. That's her fourth match on the year with at least a double-double. Freshman Marissa Cahoy had 10 kills in the match, hitting .200. Emma Meester was the other Eagle who put up double-digit kills, putting down 11 on 31 total attempts, hitting .194. Both Lily VanSeveren (18) and Natalee Hartman (12) put up double-digit digs for the Eagles. VanSeveren also had a team leading 3 aces. 

Kirkwood travels to Norfolk, NE this Wednesday for its first ICCAC match of the year against Northeast. The game will be streamed at 6:30 PM on Wednesday here.