GODFREY - The Lewis and Clark volleyball team took service to a whole new level over the weekend.
The Trailblazers swept a pair of Region 24 matches with 3-0 wins over Southeastern Illinois College (25-23, 25-15, 25-18) and Shawnee Community College (25-12, 25-15, 25-8), Saturday, Sept. 23. And they did it on the strength of their serving.
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“I’ve seen individual servers get hot and help carry a team before,” Head Coach Jim Hunstein said. “But I’ve not seen anything like what we did on Saturday.”
The remarkable achievement against SIC came when two players had double-digit serving runs. The two teams played a tight first set with LC taking set point on a kill from freshman middle hitter Maddy Mancuso (Barnhart, MO) for a 25-23 win. In the second set, Mancuso took the team to a 13-2 lead with an 11-point service run. Then in the third set, freshman outside hitter Haris Legendre (Staunton, IL) took the team from a 5-point deficit to an 8-point lead with a 13-point service run.
The SIC match was a rematch of LC’s first of the season, which the Trailblazers won 3-2 (25-12, 25-10, 21-25, 23-25, 15-11). The stats leaders this time around were Legendre, with 17 kills, and sophomore setter Savannah Billings (Staunton) with 17 assists. Legendre also had 3 aces and 12 digs.
Against Shawnee, the serving success was more widespread. Instead of long individual service runs, the team totaled 17 aces among six players. Mancuso and freshman libero Tori Folsom (Sikeston, MO) each had four aces, freshman defensive specialist Eve Kaduk (Gillespie, IL) and freshman setter Sadie Hamilton (Sparta, IL) each had three, Billings had two, and freshman middle hitter Katelyn Haas (Sorento, IL) had one.
“I think this weekend’s success goes to the mental toughness of this team,” Hunstein said. “We face a lot of tough teams and we stress aggressive serving. And a lot of that is being fearless at the line.”
Other stat leaders from the Shawnee match include Legendre with 10 kills, Billings with 15 assists, and Folsom with 16 digs. The results of the two matches bring the Trailblazers record to 5-11 on the year.
Next up for the volleyball team are a few more home matches. The Trailblazers will host Spoon River College on Wednesday, Sept. 27, at 6:00 pm in Riverbend Arena. This is a Region 24 and MWAC conference match.
Then they host another tri-match on Saturday, Sept. 30. They face regional opponent Rend Lake College at 11 a.m. and the St. Mary’s of the Woods’ junior varsity team at 3 p.m. As always, admission is free to all home matches.
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