DUBUQUE, Iowa – Grinnell College's volleyball team began the Loras/Dubuque Tournament with a convincing win, and nearly came away with a historic one after that.
After rolling past the College of St. Scholastica in four sets, the Pioneers eyed a showdown with 15th-ranked Carthage College, the team that eliminated Grinnell from the NCAA Division III National Tournament in 2019.
The Pioneers went after revenge right off the bat, and it came to fruition as they won the opening set 25-18. Carthage came back to take the second sets 25-21 and 25-20 and looked well on its way to an easy win in the fourth set after going ahead 21-15. But the Pioneers scratched their way back, tying the set at 23, 24 and 25 before Carthage escaped with a 27-25 win.
Earlier in the day, Grinnell toppled St. Scholastica by scores of 25-22, 18-25, 25-20 and 25-16.
Grinnell pounded down 57 kills in the four-setter against St. Scholastica, and had a balanced performance.
Olivia Jensen '22 hit a whopping .619 with 14 kills on 21 swings with just one error.
Rachel Woock '23 had 16 kills and
Jenna Keller '24 had 15 kills while hitting .325.
Julianna Roth '23 added 38 assists and Emily Brewer '24 tallied 10. Woock and Sophie Weber '25 had two aces, Malaina Miles '24 came up with three blocks and Weber led the team in digs with 19. Others with double-digit digs were Keller (16),
Payton Lowrey '22 (13), Woock (11) and Roth (10). Lowrey moved up to fourth in program history for career aces with 131 and eighth for digs with 1,101.
Grinnell broke away from a 19-all tie in the first set to win with a four-point run that included a kill by Woock and ace by Keller. After falling in the second set, Grinnell shot out to a 12-6 lead in the third stanza and never looked back.
The Pioneers trailed the fourth set early before rallying. With the teams tied at 11-all, Grinnell went on a key four-point run to take command for good. Woock, Miles and Keller all had kills in that span. A four-point run later in the set, which included kills by Jensen,
Julianna Vajda '24 and Woock, secured the victory.
Kaylin Kuhn '22 had 25 kills and hit .304 for Grinnell in the Carthage match, while Jensen and Woock each added 13 kills. Kuhn's kill total ranks ninth all-time at Grinnell for a four-set match, as do her 28 points scored.
Jensen hit .393 for the match. Brewer and Roth had 39 and 14 assists, respectively, Lowrey served two aces and Kuhn added two blocks. Double digits in digs were accumulated by Lowrey (22), Weber (15), Woock )13), Keller (10) and Brewer (10).
Grinnell led just 9-8 in the first set before opening things up with a five-point run that included two kills by Kuhn and two aces from Lowrey. Carthage never got closer than four the rest of the way. After Carthage won the next two sets, the winners led most of the fourth and were up 23-21 late when Kuhn tallied consecutive kills to tie it up at 23-all.
The teams traded points a few times after that, with Kuhn's kills tying the set at 24-all and 25-all before Carthage scored twice to secure the victory.
Grinnell will take an 8-7 mark into Saturday's matches against the University of Dubuque and Westminster College.
