ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Lindenwood women's volleyball team (1-0) opened the 2026 campaign with an emphatic 3-0 win over Illinois Chicago (0-2) on Friday afternoon. The Lions have now won four of five season openers in the Division-I era.
Lindenwood took the opening set behind four kills from
Susanna Beretti and three service aces from
Mandy Lawson. The Lions led by as many as eight points in the frame before fending off the Flames for a 25-23 win.
After falling behind 8-7 in set two, Lindenwood used a 6-0 run to take a 13-8 win and would retain at least a two point advantage for the remainder of the frame on their way to a 25-19 victory.
The Lions cruised to a 25-16 win in the third set to complete the sweep, putting an exclamation point on the afternoon with a 5-1 run to close out the frame.
Autumn Bax led Lindenwood in scoring with 12 points in the match, registering 10 kills and three blocks.
Lauren Ortwerth also posted 10 kills on a blistering .500 hitting percentage.
Kaci Johnson handed out 27 assists in her Lindenwood debut as the Lions hit .221 as a team. She also recorded 11 digs for a double-double while matching
Mandy Lawson with three service aces.
Defensively,
Dana Grib recorded a team-high 13 digs, while
Ashley Geluck posted three blocks to match Bax for the team-high.Â
Quotable
Praising his team's performance, Lindenwood head coach
Will Condon stated that he "felt like the team did a great job of preparing during the preseason and today showed that. UIC is a very solid team that puts a lot of pressure on you. I felt like we were able to match that pressure. What I really liked was that it was a team effort and this is our strength. We have a bunch of players that can have an impact on a match and some that did not even get in today. We saw some areas for improvement, but for the first match of the year I cannot complain."Â
Next Up
Lindenwood takes on Buffalo on Saturday morning, with first serve in St. Louis set for 11:00 a.m.
