GRINNELL, Iowa – It was a regular block party for the Grinnell College volleyball team as it won a hard-fought four-set match over Illinois Tech Saturday afternoon at Darby Gymnasium. Set scores were 25-27, 25-23, 26-24 and 25-23.
 
The Pioneers tallied 14 blocks in the match, including a career-high six by Sophia Carbajal '21. She also had five block assists and did Hannah Taylor '21, both career-bests.
 
Emma Willhardt '19 contributed six blocks and Taylor had five as Grinnell improved to 17-15, its fourth-highest win total in program history. Illinois Tech fell to 5-21.
 
Kaylin Kuhn '21 had 15 kills and Payton Lowrey '22 added 14. Julianna Roth '22 tallied 42 assists and Kuhn served up five aces. Five Pioneers had double-digit digs, led by Lowrey's 23. Kuhn and Madison Smith '20 added 18 each, Julia Welch '22 came up with 13 and Roth had 11.
 
After losing a close first set, Grinnell was in danger of losing the second after falling behind 21-16. But the Pioneers reeled off seven of the next eight points to take a one-point lead. Welch served four of those points and Willhardt and Lowrey each had kills. After Illinois Tech tied it at 23-all, the visitors had a service error and Willhardt and Kuhn teamed up for a block to even the match at one set apiece.
 
Grinnell trailed the third set 14-8 before going on a 10-4 run to tie things at 18-all. Kuhn had three kills in that span, while Lowrey added two kills and an ace. There were a few ties after that, the last at 24-all when Willhardt had a kill and Lowrey served a point to give Grinnell the win.
 
The fourth set was close throughout. With the contest tied at 18-all, Grinnell went on a 6-2 run for a 24-20 edge. Taylor had two kills in that span and Kuhn an ace. After Illinois Tech crept within 24-23, Willhardt pounded down a kill to secure the victory.
 
Grinnell had several players progress up its program season-best chart. Kuhn is now third in kills with 436, fifth in attack attempts with 1,152 and sixth in aces with 55. Roth moved up to fourth for assists with 1,124 and Lowrey is seventh in digs with 424.
 
As a team, Grinnell also saw movement on the all-time season list in several categories. Those include assists (fourth with 1,303), aces (fourth with 236), attack attempts (fifth with 4,334), kills (sixth with 1,389), digs (sixth with 2,066) and block assists (10th with 235).
 
The Pioneers meet St. Norbert College in the Midwest Conference Tournament semifinals Friday in Mount Vernon. Action begins at 4:30 p.m.