ST. CHARLES, MO. - The Lindenwood women's volleyball team defeated Eastern Illinois in a thrilling three-set victory on Friday night in Hyland Arena.
"We are so proud of this team's effort tonight," said Head Coach
Will Condon. "We really did a great job of executing the game plan and making adjustment throughout the match. EIU has some prolific and tough hitters that can score points in bunches. They are the type you can not shut down, you can only hope to contain them, and I thought we did a good job of that tonight. We did a great job of minimizing errors in our offense but maintaining our aggressiveness."
OVERVIEW
In a match that proved to be an even battle from the get-go, the Lions were able to put together a clean first set, downing the Panthers 25-20 to take the 1-0 lead. Sharp offensive and defensive efforts were apparent all over the court, with Lindenwood moving as a unit all throughout the first set.
The Panthers looked to swing things back in their favor in the second, and actually closed the gap many times throughout the second set, even getting out in front of the Lions a couple times. Lindenwood held on, however, coming out on top in a 25-23 victory to go up 2-0.
Nyah Wilson and
Mackenzi Sifuentes broke out significantly in the third set, tag-teaming to generate a great portion of the Lions' strong offense. The Lions grabbed an early lead and held onto it despite a last-ditch effort from the Panthers midway through the third set to make a comeback. The final points of the match came from back-to-back kills from Sifuentes, grabbing the Lions' 23rd and 24th point. The game point was earned on a huge block from Sifuentes and Madilyn Dement, lifting Lindenwood to a 25-19 victory in the third.
Other noteworthy performances came from Taylor Gentemann, who had the second most kills of the night with 11 total. Sifuentes and Wilson each generated strong hitting percentages, with Sifuentes hitting .476 and Wilson hitting .467. Dement tallied the highest number of digs with 12 total, while Abby VanBuskirk strung together 37 set assists throughout the night to set the tone for Lindenwood.
On top of her impressive attacking effort, Sifuentes had an impressive team-leading eight total blocks on the night, pushing her total number of points to 17.5.
Rebecca Janke played a well-rounded match as well, tallying the second-most blocks (three) and hitting the second best on the team with her .417 hitting percentage.
UP NEXT
The Lions will return home to Hyland Arena tomorrow for one final time this year, where they will take on Eastern Illinois at 7:00PM.
