MOUNT VERNON, Iowa – Grinnell College and St. Norbert College took part in a two-hour, five-set volleyball marathon two weeks ago.
So it's only fitting they were involved in another wild contest in the opening round of the Midwest Conference Tournament Friday night. This time, the Green Knights came out on top, rallying to win by scores of 23-25, 20-25, 25-13, 25-13, 15-9.
Grinnell finished its season with a 17-16 mark, the fourth-highest win total in program history, while setting a school record with seven league wins. St. Norbert advanced to Saturday's title match with a 13-14 record.
Grinnell got 13 kills from All-MWC first-team selection
Kaylin Kuhn '21 and 12 from
Emma Willhardt '19. All-MWC second-teamer
Julianna Roth '22 dished out 44 assists and was one of five Pioneers to have double-digit digs. That group included
Madison Smith '20 (21),
Payton Lowrey '22 (17), Roth (15),
Julia Welch '22 (13) and Kuhn (10). Willhardt added four blocks to the mix.
Grinnell rallied from a 12-10 deficit in the first set with a 6-0 run in which Roth served five points and Kuhn had a kill. The Pioneers upped their lead to as many as four before seeing it cut to one a few times, the last at 24-23 before Lowrey delivered a kill to seal the set.
The Pioneers trailed the second set 3-1 before rolling back into contention, taking the lead on Roth's six-point service run and maintaining it with a five-point serving spree by Welch. Grinnell led by as any as seven in the set, but the Green Knights rallied to within 22-20. That's when a St. Norbert ball handling error, Lowrey kill and Welch service point gave Grinnell a 2-0 lead in sets.
St. Norbert won the next two sets by identical scores to force the deciding set. St. Norbert got up 7-3 early and later 8-4 before Grinnell tied it with a 5-1 run. Smith served three points during the run and Willhardt had a kill to make it 9-all. But the Green Knights countered with six points to secure the victory.
Willhardt finished her Pioneer career as one of the top blockers in program history, ranking second in career solos with 101 and eighth in total blocks with 251. Grinnell had four players finish in the program's top 10 season-best list. They included Kuhn (third in kills, kills per set and attack attempts with 449, 4.32 and 1,211, respectively, and fifth in aces with 56), Roth (third in assists with 1,168 and fifth in assists per set with 9.82), Smith (third in digs with 532 and fifth in digs per set with 4.75) and Lowrey (seventh in digs with 441 and eighth in aces with 54).
As a team, Grinnell made an impact on the season-best list in 10 categories. Those included attack attempts (second with 4,515), assists (third with 1,349), aces (fourth with 237), assists per set (fifth with 11.24), digs (fifth with 2,148), kills (sixth with 1,437), kills per set (sixth with 11.98), digs per set (ninth with 17.90), aces per set (ninth with 1.98) and block assists (10th with 245).
