Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324
Box Score
WHEATON, Ill. (Sept. 13, 2019) – Opening College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) play on Friday at Wheaton College, the North Central College women's volleyball team suffered a 3-0 loss at the hands of the Thunder inside King Arena.
North Central (4-6, 0-1 CCIW) came out slow in the opening set and were forced to use both timeouts within the first 14 points of the match as the Thunder (7-1, 1-0 CCIW) jumped out to an early 10-4 lead.
Following the second timeout, the Cardinals caught fire and went on a 12-4 run to quickly overtake the Wheaton lead 16-14, as two kills and a service ace off the hand of
Reagan Raymer highlighted the run.
That lead did not last long however, as Wheaton rebounded to knot the score 19-19 before going on the set's pivotal run, a four-point swing to take a 23-19 lead as two Thunder kills and a pair of service aces from Allie High sparked the run and allowed Wheaton to steal away the opening set 25-21.
Shaking off the first set loss, North Central opened up an early 7-3 lead in the second as two more kills from Raymer and kills from each of
Kimberly Epker and
Emmie Naal had the Cardinals rolling early.
Like the first set however, that lead quickly dissipated as Wheaton rallied to score the next six points to take a 9-7 advantage and never surrendered the lead from that point forward, closing out the second set 25-19.
The third set was tight early on until three-straight North Central points on two Thunder errors and a
Kiarah Horn ace gave the Cardinals their largest lead of the set 15-12.
What turned out to be the theme of the match, the Cardinals could not hold onto that lead as a 6-1 Wheaton run gave the hosts a 18-16 lead and the momentum to finish out the set 25-20.
Raymer finished with eight kills to lead the Cardinals, while Epker added seven and Horn handed out 21 assists. Defensively,
Lexi Barry led the team with 20 digs while Raymer finished with nine.
Ellie Brown and Colleen Smith paced the Thunder offense with 11 kills apiece, while Alecia Funk dished out 22 assists and Marlee Anderson added 17.
North Central returns to King Arena on Saturday, Sept. 14 for day two of the Marilyn Scribner Invitational, taking on Benedictine University at 10 a.m., followed by Lake Forest College at noon.
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