KENOSHA, Wis. – The McKendree University women's volleyball team picked up two victories here Friday on the first day of the Hampton Inn Invitational hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Parkside held at the De Simone Arena.
 
McKendree (4-2) opened the day with a three-set sweep over Minnesota-Crookston (25-17, 25-21, 25-17) and then ended the first day of action with a four-set upset over 19th-ranked Michigan Tech (25-27, 25-20, 25-23, 25-18).
 
The Bearcats close out play in the two-day event on Saturday, Sept. 3 by facing Upper Iowa at 11 a.m. and then concluding the event with a 7 p.m. match against host, Parkside.
 
McKendree's 4-2 start to this season is the best six match start in school history since also opening the 2015 season with four wins in its first six matches.
 
MATCH 1 – McKENDREE 3, MINNESOTA-CROOKSTON 0
In Friday's opening match against Minnesota-Crookston, the Bearcats offense hit a season high .310 and got five or more kills from six different players, including a career-high tying 11 kills and a .568 hitting percentage from senior middle blocker Claire Diercks (Highland, Ill./Highland). In addition to Diercks, junior outside hitter Colleen Preusser (St. Charles, Mo./Lutheran) added nine kills, while junior middle blocker Lauren McCurley (Troy, Ill./Triad) and freshman outside hitter Lauren Harris (Woodlawn, Ill./Woodlawn) each had six kills and combined to hit .556.
 
Senior Maddie Misner (Carbondale, Ill./Carbondale), who played libero in the match, had a match-high 12 digs, while junior outside hitter Brianna Binder (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge) added 10 digs and six kills in the win.
 
Sophomore setter Amber Williams (Aurora, Colo./Rhodes College) set the table for the Bearcat offense with 38 assists and had three of McK's six aces in the match.
 
Defensively, McKendree had nine blocks, including five from McCurley, while Harris and Diercks each had three blocks.
 
The Golden Eagles (0-5) were paced by nine kills and 11 digs from Bailey Schaefer and eight kills from Mara Weisensel.
 
The Bearcats jumped in front 3-0 in the first set and led 9-5 when UMC used a 4-2 run to pull within 11-9. McK, though, responded by scoring four straignt points aided by three straight attack errors by the Golden Eagles and kill by Diercks to take a 15-9 lead. That would be as close as the Golden Eagles would get as the Bearcats closed out the set on a 10-8 run to post a 25-17 win. In the set, the Bearcats hit .242 with 14 kills and had three blocks and two aces, while UCM hit -.138 with four kills and eight attack errors on 29 attempts.
 
McK jumped out to a 9-5 lead early in the second set, but UMC responded with a 6-2 run to tie the set at 11-all. After the teams would trade points to retie the set 12, the Bearcats used a 9-4 run capped by back-to-back kills from sophomore outside hitter Emma McIlhargie (Birch Run, Mich./Birch Run) and Preusser to take a 21-16 lead. UMC would come right back and score four straight points to pull within 21-20. But the Bearcats would come right back and score four of the final five points as all four of the points came from two kills from Diercks and kills by Preusser and McIlhargie to cap McK's 25-21 set win to take a 2-0 lead in the match. The Bearcats hit .314 in the set with 14 kills and four blocks, while UMC hit .257 with 14 kills.
 
The third set was close early on as neither team led by more than two points until the Bearcats used a 7-1 run capped by an ace from Misner to turn a 7-all tie into a 14-8 lead. McK's lead would grow to as much as 21-11, before UMC responded with a 6-2 run to drop McK's lead to 23-17. The Bearcats would then cap the 25-17 win by scoring the final two points to seal its three-set sweep. McK hit .375 in the set with 17 kills, including five kills each from McCurley and Diercks.
 
MATCH 2 – McKENDREE 3, #19 MICHIGAN TECH 1
In Friday's second match against nationally-ranked Michigan Tech, the Bearcats used 14 blocks and six aces to their advantage in earning a four-set win. The Bearcats outhit Tech, .167 to .104, but Tech had one more kill than the Bearcats, 52-51.
 
McCurley paced the Bearcats balanced offensive effort with a career-high 12 kills and added a career-high 10 blocks for her first career double-double. McCurley also hit .611 in the match. In addition to McCurley, Binder added 11 kills, 12 digs and a career-high seven blocks. The double-double was the third of the season for Binder.
 
Three other Bearcats – McIlhargie, Preusser, and Diercks each had seven kills, while Williams had six kills, 38 assists, seven digs and hit .462 in the win.
 
Freshman Ashlyn Berczynski (Minooka, Ill./Minooka) paced the defense with 22 digs in her collegiate debut, while Preusser had 11 digs on the match.
 
Tech (4-1) was paced by 12 kills from Jillian Kuizenga, while Meg Raabe added 10 kills. Carissa Beyer had 16 digs and Lina Espejo-Ramirez posted a double-double 37 assists and 13 digs.
 
The opening set was an impressive one as the two teams combined for 13 ties and seven lead changes and they also combined for 29 kills. Tech jumped out 6-3 early in the set, but the Bearcats responded with an 11-4 run capped by an assisted block from Williams and Diercks to take a 14-10 lead. Tech used a 7-5 run to tie the set at 19-all. From that point, the two teams would trade points until Tech used a 3-0 run to turn a 22-21 deficit into a 24-22 lead. The Bearcats, though, responded by scoring three straight points to retake the lead at 25-24. Following McK's run, Tech would close out the set by scoring the final three points, including capping the 27-25 win with a solo block by Morgan Radtke off an attack by Preusser.
 
Trailing 1-0 in the set, McKendree would rebound in the second set as they hit .235 with 13 kills, including four kills and a .500 attack percentage from McCurley to earn a 25-20 set win to tie the match at a set each.
 
Much like the first set, the second set was another back-and-forth affair as the two teams combined for 15 ties and eight ties in the set. Tech jumped out to a 10-6 lead early in the set, before the Bearcats responded with a 7-2 run capped by a back-to-back kills from Preusser and McCurley to take a 13-12 lead. The teams would then take turns holding the lead until McK scored three straight points to turn a 22-21 deficit into a 24-22 lead. The run was aided by kills from Binder and McIlhargie and capped by an assisted block from McCurley and Preusser. The teams would trade the final two points of the set to take the 25-23 set win to take a 2-1 lead in the set. In the set, McK hit .231 with 12 kills and five blocks, while Tech hit .191 with 17 kills.
 
Much like the second set, the Bearcats dominated the fourth and final set as they hit .114 with 10 kills, while McK's defense held Tech to a .000 hitting percentage and had five blocks. McCurley had five kills and hit 1.000 as she didn't have an attack error on five attempts and added four blocks.