IWU volleyball team beats Blackburn in four sets

BY ANDY KRUTSINGER

Mt. Pleasant News

It was a good night to be an Iowa Wesleyan Tiger on Thursday night. The IWU volleyball team snapped a seven-game losing streak to grab a conference victory during homecoming week, defeating Blackburn College, 3-1 (26-28, 25-23, 25-21, 25-14).

Game one was competitive throughout as the teams went back and forth and neither team could get any separation.

Trailing 23-21 late, Cassandra Schwamborn was able to cut the lead with a soft spike. After a Blackburn kill made it 24-22, the Tigers tied the game up at 24-24 with a Beaver error and a game-tying kill by Hannah Lien.

Blackburn had two chances to win the game get snuffed out by IWU. The second of which was a big block by Jordan Miller and Hunter Clark, which tied it at 26-26. A couple of IWU errors gave Blackburn the points they needed, however, and the Beavers took game one by two.

The second set looked like a carbon copy of the first, with the teams trading blows once again, and eventually facing another tense moment, at 23-23.

Schwamborn, who overpowered the Beavers all game, closed the game out with two hard kills and it was 1-1 after two sets.

The Tigers used momentum from the second game to cruise through the third set, but the Beavers did make it interesting late.

With IWU leading, 24-17, the Beavers went on a four-point run to cut the lead to 24-21, but Maddison Hiland stepped up in the clutch with a game-winning kill, and the Tigers won, 25-21.

IWU continued to poor it on in the fourth set. The Tigers rushed out to a 20-12 lead and then scored five of the next seven points to take the game. The final kill went to Sydney Ellsworth, and IWU had their biggest win of the night, at 25-14.

Schwamborn led the team offensively with 18 kills in 38 attack attempts. Maddison Hiland had 11 kills in 23 attempts, and Ellsworth finished with seven kills in 24 attempts.

Smale ended the game with 41 of the Tigers? 49 assists in the game. Howard and Hiland had three, and Schwamborn finished with two.

Cierra Howard finished the game with 35 digs to lead the team defensively. Schwamborn had 27 digs and Katie Garcia finished with 10.

The Tigers moved to 5-9 overall with the win and 4-5 in conference play. They will be back in action today (Fri.), in Cedar Rapids where they will take on Coe College at 3:30 p.m., and Wisconsin-Platteville at 5:30 p.m.