Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324

Box Score

Oct. 4, 2016 – Brushing off a tough first set loss and knotting the score 1-1 with a 25-22 second set win, the North Central College women's volleyball team was overmatched by 23^rd-ranked Millikin University on Tuesday evening, dropping the final two sets and eventually falling 3-1 inside Gregory Arena.

The opening set was back-and-forth throughout, but North Central (11-6, 0-2 CCIW) faced a 24-22 deficit late and looked to be all but finished.  A Millikin attack error followed by a kill from Julie Laugel gave the Cardinals life, but a kill from the Big Blue's Alora Goodey and a Cardinal ball handling error gave Millikin a 26-24 first set win.

Forgetting about the opening set loss, the Cardinals came out with a vengeance in the second set, jumping out to a 10-6 lead to force an early Millikin timeout.  The Big Blue mounted a late comeback however, tying the score at 22 late, but back-to-back kills from Laugel and Rachel Elshoff gave the Cardinals set point, where Elshoff and Sarah Geosling teamed up with the set-winning block the following point.

Set three was one to forget for North Central, as Millikin scored 11 of the set's final 12 points en route to a 25-13 win.  The Cardinals finished the set with just six kills while also committing six errors, while the Big Blue rattled off 155 kills to just four errors.

Looking to force a fifth and final set, the Cardinals rallied to tie the score at 22 but the Millikin attack proved to be too much in the end as two kills and a service ace quickly ended the set 25-22.  The Big Blue once again racked up 15 kills to just three errors in the set, hitting .343, while North Central finished with 11 kills to hit .242.

Anna Billman led the Cardinal offense with 12 kills while hitting .417 on the match.  Laugel also finished in double-figures with 10 kills, while Alexa Zimbelman dished out a team-leading 20 assists.  Defensively, Olivia Hanley led the way with 19 digs, while Elshoff and Laugel added 13 and 12, respectively.

Erin Syversen led the Millikin attack with 19 kills on 61 attack attempts, while also leading the team with 21 digs on defense.  Emily Mihalkanin led all players with 54 assists, while tying Syversen for the team lead with three service aces.

North Central travels to the Barker Chevrolet Classic hosted by Illinois Wesleyan University this weekend, kicking off play against Lincoln Christian University on Friday, Oct. 7 at 5 p.m. inside the Shirk Center.