ST. CHARLES, Mo. – The Lindenwood women's volleyball team (13-2, 3-0 OVC) won their 2026 home opener on Friday night over Eastern Illinois by a score of 3-0. The Lions limited the Panthers to a .066 hitting percentage throughout the contest while hitting .296 as a team, with three Lions finishing with 10 or more kills.
Kylee Richey and
Lauren Ortwerth had 11 kills each, while
Autumn Bax added 10.
Lindenwood trailed 4-3 early in the opening set, but following a Susanna Beretti kill to even the score at four, LU went on a 14-3 run to take a commanding 18-7 lead and won the opening set by a score of 25-12. The Lions hit .500 as a unit and were led by Beretti, Bax, and Ortwerth, who each had four kills. Defensively, the Lions recorded three total blocks and were led by Richey, who had one solo block and one block assist.
In the second set, the two teams traded the first 22 points, with the score even at 11-11. Following Beretti's fifth kill of the match to give Lindenwood a 12-11 advantage, the Lions used a 4-0 run to create some separation in the middle set, with three of the four kills during the run coming from Ortwerth. Ashley Geluck added three kills late in the set as the Lions went on to take a two-set lead with a 25-17 victory.
Eastern Illinois jumped out to their largest lead of the match at 5-2 to begin the third set, but Lindenwood put a stop to the Panther run behind two kills and two blocks from Richey that sparked a 6-0 run and gave the Lions and 8-5 lead. Both teams continued to battle throughout the middle portion of the set, and with the score tied at 13-13, Lindenwood went on a 5-0 run thanks to kills from Richey and Beretti, along with a service ace from Alayna Rudebeck, to push the lead to 18-13. LU took the final set 25-17 and completed the sweep over the Panthers to improve to 3-0 in Ohio Valley Conference play.
Kaci Johnson finished the match with 34 assists, extending her streak of recording 30 or more assists in a match to eight consecutive contests.
Dana Grib,
Susanna Beretti, and
Alayna Rudebeck each recorded 10 or more digs, with Grib and Beretti leading the way with 14 digs apiece.
Next Up
Lindenwood will wrap up the series with Eastern Illinois tomorrow afternoon at 2 PM on ESPN+.
