(LEBANON, Ill., Oct. 22)—Evelyn Bean earned her 300th victory as the head coach of the McKendree University as the Bearcats swept past Williams Baptist College on Friday at the Melvin Price Convocation Center. McKendree took the best-of-five match by scores of 25-15, 25-14 and 25-17.
McKendree picked up its 20th win of the season by defeating the Eagles on Friday. The Bearcats are now 20-7 overall and improve to 7-3 in American Midwest Conference play. This is the first time since the 2007 season that McKendree has reached the 20-win mark. It is also the ninth time that Bean has guided the Bearcats to a 20-win campaign.
Bean, who is in her 14th season at McKendree, pushed her career record to 300-230 with Friday's win. Including her 10 years as the head coach at Lewis and Clark Community College, Bean has amassed 561 career wins. She is the all-time wins leader in McKendree volleyball history.
Senior middle hitter Carrie Brickey (St. Louis, Mo./Rosati-Kain) (St. Louis, Mo./Rosati-Kain) paced McKendree with eight kills while adding a pair of blocks. Senior middle hitter Ashley Perry (Sparta, Ill./Sparta) (Sparta, Ill./Sparta) and junior right-side hitter Melinda Bayer (Collinsville, IL/Triad) (Collinsville, Ill./Triad) chipped in with seven kills each as Perry also added a match-high four blocks. Senior setter Alyssa Speckhals (Hermann, Mo./Hermann) (Hermann, Mo./Hermann) registered a match-high 19 assists for McKendree.
Senior libero Lindsey Gray (Lebanon, Ill./Lebanon) (Lebanon, Ill./Lebanon) also helped out for the Bearcats with a team-leading 10 digs and four service aces.
In the first set, McKendree capitalized on a few errors by Williams Baptist to build an early 7-2 lead. The Bearcats slowly increased the margin, and an ace by Gray gave McKendree its largest lead of the set at 17-9. The Eagles slowly chipped away before a block by Brickey started a 6-2 run that gave McKendree the first set at 25-15.
McKendree dominated the second set, using runs of 7-2 and 6-0 to roll out to an 18-8 advantage before trading points the rest of the way to post the 25-14 win. Williams Baptist (13-15, 3-9 AMC) reeled off seven straight points to grab a 9-5 lead in the final set. Once again, the Bearcats got on a roll, using a 7-1 spurt to grab the lead for good.
The Bearcats will play host to AMC foe Park University Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Melvin Price Convocation Center.
McKENDREE UNIVERSITY VOLLEYBALL RESULT
FRIDAY, OCT. 22 AT LEBANON, IL
Team 1 2 3
McKENDREE 25 25 25
Williams Baptist 15 14 17
McKendree is now 20-7 overall and 7-3 in the American Midwest Conference
