Red Devils Rally Past Regents, 3-1
ROCKFORD – After going 2-2 in the team's season-opening tournament over the weekend, the Eureka volleyball team came into the week with some newfound confidence.
On Thursday, the Red Devils' rode that confidence to a four-set road victory over Rockford to improve to 3-2 on the season. The final scores were 25-23, 25-16, 19-25, 25-15.
The win marked the Red Devils' first 3-2 start through five matches since 2019.
Sophomore Alexis Charlton (Eureka, Ill./Eureka) tallied a team-high 10 kills and added six digs. Fellow sophomore Brooklyn Shell (Evansville. Ind./Mount Vernon) followed with nine kills, a team-high 21 digs and an ace.
Middle blocker Frannie Heckman (Benson, Ill./Roanoke-Benson) and setter Hope McGinnes (Mackinaw, Ill./Deer Creek-Mackinaw/Lincoln) each added seven kills, with Heckman hitting a team-best .429 and contributing two solo blocks and one assist at the net.
Madison Richards (Princeton, Ill./Princeton) notched five kills and racked up three solo blocks and three assists.
McGinnes, Regan Reed and Sara Hart (Secor, Ill./Eureka) all reached double digits in digs, posting 12, 12 and 11, respectively.
Hart, one of two setters in the Red Devils' rotation on the night, distributed a team-high 21 digs, while McGinnes had 13. Haley Morgan (Bloomington, Ill./Bloomington/Lincoln) recorded three of the Red Devils' five aces on the night.
The Red Devils came from behind and scored eight of the last 10 points of the first set to take a 1-0 lead in the match. A kill by McGinnes off an assist by Hart secured a close win.
Eureka built off the strong finish by hitting a match-best .361 and notching 15 kills in an emphatic 25-16 Set 2.
The visitors fell into a hole early in the third set and couldn't close the gap to get the sweep, but the maroon and gold rallied back in the fourth set, hitting .300, putting down 12 kills and only making a match-low three hitting errors.
On Saturday, the Red Devils (3-2) will take on two more in-state foes, Dominican and Knox, in a tri-match at Galesburg.