GRINNELL, Iowa – For the second day in a row, the Grinnell College volleyball team came away with a nail-biter five-set win at its own tournament.
Saturday's thriller was against Concordia-Moorhead, which the Pioneers won 25-16, 19-25, 25-17, 23-25, 20-18 at Darby Gymnasium.
Payton Lowrey '23 piled up 34 digs, tied for 10
th-best all-time at Grinnell and tied for seventh for a five-set match.
The hitting attack was balanced, as
Jenna Keller '24 and
Hayley Taka '26 each had 15 kills and
Malaina Miles '24 contributing 14 while hitting .306.
Emily Brewer '24 was again an assist machine, putting up 48.
Sophie Weber '25 added two ace serves, Keller had 18 digs and
Rachel Woock '23 tallied 14 digs.
Grinnell ran away with the first and third sets, but both times Concordia rallied to tie things up. The visitors got out to a 4-1 lead in the fifth set, but Grinnell rallied. Later, trailing 12-10, Lowrey served two points and the Pioneers got another on a Concordia attack error to go up 13-12.
Concordia was later serving for match point when
Ella O'Neill '25 kept the hosts alive with a kill. With the match tied at 18-all,
Nicole Mlynski '26 pounded down a kill and the Cobbers had a hitting error to secure Grinnell's win.
Grinnell (3-1) suffered its first loss of the season to finish out the tourney, falling 21-25, 25-18, 25-20 and 25-19 to Greenville University. Miles and Keller had 15 and 13 kills, respectively, while Brewer added 39 assists. Miles hit an even .500 for the match.
Lowrey had three of Grinnell's nine aces and also added 30 digs to go with Brewer's 10 digs.
Grinnell takes to the road Tuesday to face Buena Vista University in Storm Lake for a 7 p.m. match.
