Eureka Tests Greenville, Falls in Three
EUREKA – The Eureka volleyball team hosted Greenville in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action on Tuesday.
In front of an enthusiastic crowd, the Red Devils kept it competitive against a strong Panthers squad, but ultimately fell in three sets. The final scores were 25-19, 25-13, 25-19.
Freshman Frannie Heckman (Benson, Ill./Roanoke-Benson) hit a team-best .429 and tallied a team-high seven kills.
Brooklyn Shell (Evansville, Ind./Mount Vernon) and Hope McGinnes (Mackinaw, Ill./Deer Creek-Mackinaw/Lincoln) each contributed six kills and Alexis Charlton (Eureka, Ill./Eureka) followed with five.
Libero Regan Reed (Flanagan, Ill./Flanagan-Cornell) notched 17 digs and landed a team-high three aces. McGinnes and Sara Hart (Secor, Ill./Eureka) combined for 29 assists, with the former recording 16 and the latter 13.
Shell, Heckman, Charlton and Madison Richards (Princeton, Ill./Princeton) all recorded a block assist.
The first set was the most competitive of the match.
It was close early on, then Greenville started to pull away for a bit. The visitors scored four straight points to take a 16-10 lead, but the Red Devils responded with a 9-2 run to come within one point at 18-17. Heckman had a pair of kills in the run, and she teamed up for a block with Shell, who also had a kill.
The run ended, however, with a pair of Eureka hitting errors, leading to a Red Devils timeout. A McGinnes got the Red Devils within two, but Greenville finished the set with a 5-1 run.
The Panthers came out strong in the second set, hitting .378 and amassing a double-digit lead.
In the third set, however, Eureka managed to stay within striking distance, never trailing by more than six and closing it to three at 22-19. Greenville scored the last three points of the match on a kill, an ace and an attack error to close it out.
Eureka hit .154 on the night – its best efficiency in conference play thus far.
Greenville hit .400 and had three players contribute eight kills: Mia Bonacorsi, Mia deJesus and Sacorra Patton.
The Red Devils (5-9, 0-5 SLIAC) will next take on Central (3-8, 0-2 American Rivers Conference) and Simpson (8-7, 2-1 SLIAC) at the Millikin Invitational on Saturday.
