EC Volleyball Bests Beloit in Five Sets, 3-2

BELOIT, Wis. – The Eureka volleyball team pulled off a gutsy, five-set victory over Beloit on the road on Tuesday night. The final score was 19-25, 25-20, 25-15, 20-25, 15-10.

With the win, the Red Devils improved to 5-3 on the season. It's the first time Eureka has won five of its first eight matches since 2005.

Eureka dropped the first set, but took the next two to get a 2-1 advantage in the match. The Buccaneers came back and took Set 4 to force a fifth set. That's where the Red Devils closed it out. The team hit a match-best .286 and jumped out to a 7-2 lead. When the home team rallied back to make it a two-point set, Eureka took three of the next four points to get a four-point cushion.

The Buccaneers dropped an ace to trim the lead back to two at 12-10, then the maroon and gold closed the door by scoring the next three. Brooklyn Shell (Evansville, Ind./Mount Vernon) put down the 13 point. A Beloit attacking error made it 14-10 and a kill by Hope McGinnes (Mackinaw, Ill./Deer Creek-Mackinaw) ended it.

Shell, a sophomore outside hitter, finished with a season-high total of 15 kills, a season-high 26 digs and a team-high and a team-high three service aces while hitting a team-best .208 from the floor.

Fellow sophomore outside hitter Alexis Charlton (Eureka, Ill./Eureka) added 10 kills to go with nine digs and an ace while hitting .171

Daizjah Shannon (East St. Louis, Mo./Cahokia/Lincoln) and McGinnes followed with six and five kills, respectively. McGinnes, a setter, also distributed team-high 19 assists and had 15 digs. Fellow setter Sara Hart (Secor, Ill./Eureka) posted 14 assists, along with 10 digs.

Libero Regan Reed (Flanagan, Ill./Flanagan-Cornell) notched 20 digs, tallied six assist and had an ace.

At the net, the Red Devils notched nine total blocks, with Shannon, Madison Richards (Princeton, Ill./Princeton) and Frannie Heckman (Benson, Ill./Roanoke-Benson) each recording a solo block. Shell and Richards both contributed two block assists, while Heckman and Shannon each had one.

The Red Devils (5-3) have the rest of the week and weekend off from competition. They will next take on Harris-Stowe on the road on Monday at 6 p.m.