(East Peoria, Ill., November 21)—The McKendree University volleyball dropped a five-set nail biter to the University of Indianapolis Saturday afternoon in the semifinal round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship Tournament. The Bearcats fell by scores of 25-22, 25-18, 20-25, 18-25, and 15-13.
The loss drops McKendree to 22-11 overall and now must await word on Sunday to see if they will earn a regional bid to the NCAA Division II Championships. Pairings and match times for the 64-team tournament will be announced Monday at 7:30 p.m. ET on the NCAA Selection Show.
Three different Bearcats tabbed 14 kills on the evening led by an outstanding performance from senior right side
Taylor Voss (Breese, IL/Breese Central) who had a .458 attack percentage going 14-24 from the field along with four blocks and three digs. Sophomore outside hitter tallied a double-double with 14 kills and 21 digs, while fellow sophomore outside hitter notched her 14 kills with three digs and two blocks.
Freshman setter
Morgan Melchert (Mt. Vernon, IA/Mt. Vernon) had a team high 28 assists to pair with 15 digs, while junior setter
Aubry Dickmann (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) passed out 24 of her own. Redshirt junior
Hannah Wessel (Waterloo, IL/Gibault Catholic) had eight kills off the bench and sophomore libero
Ashly Schmitt (Johnsburg, IL/Johnsburg) stuck 19 digs from the back row for McKendree.
The Greyhounds struggled out of the gate handing the Bearcats a 4-1 lead with four straight attack errors. Indianapolis rallied back to take an 11-10 lead before McKendree rattled off four more points starting with back to back kills from sophomore middle blocker
Maria Rasch (Kenosha, WI/Westosha Central) and Geiger. The Bearcats held on to that three point advantage at 22-19 before the Greyhounds went on a six point streak to steal the first set by three.
Indianapolis jumped out to a 17-4 lead as the Greyhound cruised through set two putting the Bearcats on the ropes needing three straight sets to advance. McKendree came out hot after the intermission taking a 9-5 advantage before taking eight of nine points pushing the lead to 17-8 with two kills apiece from Wessel, Williams, and Geiger. Indianapolis made a push pulling within three but the Bearcats held on taking set three by five.
McKendree used that momentum to put on an 11-3 run early in set four taking a 13-7 lead. The Bearcats pushed that lead to seven after a pair of kills from Wessel. The Greyhounds fired back with five straight points to pull within two at 19-17 before the teams exchanged seven kills back and forth capped off by an ace from senior defensive specialist
Jaden McBride (Farmington, MO/Farmington) putting McKendree up 24-20. A final kill from Williams tied the match at two and forced a decisive fifth set.
The Bearcats again took an early 3-0 lead with two errors and kill from Wessel. The teams exchanged points until back to back kills from the Greyhounds tied the match at nine. A kill from Williams recaptured the lead for McKendree, but Indianapolis took the next four points putting the Bearcats back against the wall. McKendree took three of the next four points with a pair of kills from Wessel and one from Geiger that pulled the Bearcats within one and forced a Greyhound timeout, but Indianapolis snuck out with a win landing a final kill to advance to the GLVC title match.
