Blackburn Holds Off Red Devils, 3-1

CARLINVILLE, Ill. – The Eureka volleyball team came a point away from pushing Blackburn to a fifth set on Tuesday.

However, the Beavers held on and beat Eureka in four. The final scores were 21-25, 18-25, 25-18, 25-27.

Eureka sophomore Brooklyn Shell (Evansville, Ind./Mount Vernon) posted a team-high 11 kills while hitting .278 and tallied 15 digs. Libero Regan Reed (Flanagan, Ill./Flanagan-Cornell) also had 15 digs.

Hope McGinnes (Mackinaw, Ill./Deer Creek-Mackinaw/Lincoln) hit a team-best .412 and notched eight kills, 12 digs and 19 assists. Daizjah Shannon (East St. Louis, Ill./Cahokia/Lincoln) and Alexis Charlton (Eureka, Ill./Eureka) added seven and six kills, respectively.

Setter Sara Hart (Secor, Ill./Eureka) distributed 15 assists and had 10 digs. Frannie Heckman (Benson, Ill./Roanoke-Benson) landed a team-high five service aces and had four block assists. Madison Richards (Princeton, Ill./Princeton) also had four block assists.

After dropping the first two sets, Eureka came back strong in the third set, hit .278 and led by as many as seven points en route to a 25-18 win.

The Red Devils were right there in the fourth set, too. They controlled the first half of the match and held a five-point advantage at 17-12. The Beavers responded with an 8-0 run.

Eureka bounced back and claimed eight of the next 12 points. A block by Heckman and Charlton made it set point, but the Beavers scored the last three points to end the match in four sets.

Blackburn's Elizabeth Bowyer finished with a match-high 16 kills, while Jessica Muckensturm and Emily Eitzenhefer contributed 14 and 13 kills, respectively.

The Red Devils (8-18, 3-10 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) will close the 2022 season with a Senior Night showdown against Fontbonne (12-10, 9-4 SLIAC) on Friday at 7 p.m.