GRINNELL, Iowa – If the Grinnell College volleyball team needed any momentum heading into next weekend's Midwest Conference Tournament match with Cornell College, Wednesday night's thrill-a-minute victory provided it.
The Pioneers snapped Cornell's 44-match MWC winning streak that dated back to 2015 by toppling the Rams in five sets before a boisterous crowd at Darby Gymnasium. The result forced the Rams into a first-place tie with St. Norbert College for the league title with an 8-1 record while Grinnell tied for third in the league standings with a 7-2 mark, equaling the best MWC record in program history.
Grinnell and Cornell will square off again in nine days at the MWC Tourney in Mount Vernon. The Rams are the top seed and Grinnell the fourth seed in the 7 p.m. affair.
Grinnell sailed to victory in the first two sets Wednesday, winning 25-17 and 25-15. But then the Rams caught fire, winning the next two sets 25-14 and 25-21. Cornell got out to a sizable lead in the fifth set, too, but the Pioneers would not give up and worked their way to a 17-15 victory.
Grinnell, which earlier this season defeated Cornell in a tournament to snap an 18-match losing streak to the Rams, improved to 22-4 overall while Cornell dipped to 16-8. Grinnell's win was the first over Cornell in MWC play since 1996.
Julianna Roth '22 had a big night, becoming just the fifth Pioneer in history to reach 2,000 career assists and also the fastest to reach the milestone. She had 46 assists Wednesday to go along with 20 digs.
Kaylin Kuhn '21 recorded six ace serves, the seventh-most for a Pioneer in a five-set match, and 18 kills while
Rachel Woock '23 contributed 15 kills and 25 digs.
Madison Smith '20 had 16 digs and
Payton Lowrey '22 added 23 digs and three aces.
Grinnell had sizzling-hot hitting efficiency numbers of .286 in the first set and .273 in the second while holding Cornell to .133 in the opener and negative numbers in the next. The key run in the first set was a four-point spurt that turned a 9-8 lead into a 13-8 cushion, as Woock served three points and
Olivia Jensen '22 and Roth each had kills. Grinnell never looked back in getting the win.
In the second set, the Pioneers turned a 5-3 lead into a 14-4 cushion to all but secure the win. Kuhn had two aces during the run,
Anna Killin '22 added two kills and
Hannah Taylor '21 another.
Cornell used a 6-1 run midway through the third set to get the win. Grinnell bolted out to leads of 5-0 and 10-3 in the fourth set, but the Rams raced back to force a fifth set.
The Rams led 4-1 and 6-2 in the deciding contest, but the Pioneers refused to go away. Trailing 9-5, Taylor and Jensen had consecutive kills and Smith served two aces in a row to force a 9-all tie.
There were ties at 10, 11 and 12 before Roth served two points to put the Pioneers at match point with a 14-12 lead. Then Cornell scored three points in a row to get match point at 15-14. Grinnell regrouped, though, as Killin pounded down a kill, Kuhn served an ace and Woock finished things off with a kill to send Grinnell into celebration.
During the match, Kuhn moved up to fifth on Grinnell's career aces list with 132. Her season totals of 395 kills and 449.5 points rank eighth and 10th in program history, respectively. Lowrey's 55 ace serves are seventh. As a team, Grinnell's totals of 1,189 kills and 1,528 points this season each rank 10th.
The Pioneers close out their regular-season slate Saturday with two home matches. Senior Day activities are slated directly prior to the 11 a.m. match with Buena Vista University, and action will conclude with a 1 p.m. contest against Central College.
