Tigers gobble Griffins at home

The Iowa Wesleyan volleyball team won their sixth conference game on Wednesday night, taking out Fontbonne University in four sets.

After dominating the first set, the Tigers fell by four in the second game, but bounced right back to take the third and fourth sets, winning 25-15, 21-25, 25-20, 25-18.

IW exploded in the first set. The Tigers scored the first three points of the game and never looked back. IW held a steady lead early and eventually worked it to double digits at 14-4, and then again at 15-5 on a kill by Allegra Collette.

The Tigers didn't let up, cruising to their first set win. Another kill by Collette ended the game at 25-15. That was the 13th kill for IW in the opening set compared to just three errors.

'I love when the girls can come out and do that,” said head head coach B.J. Wagy about the opening set. 'We do that quite often through the season, and then the second set is nothing like that. So that's frustrating, and we're working on that in practice.”

It looked like the momentum might carry over into the second set when Jordan Miller and Lida Landre started the game off with back-to-back kills to put the Tigers up 2-0, but Fontbonne responded with five straight points of their own to take a 5-2 lead.

The Griffins held a small lead throughout the game and IW could never come back to tie. Fontbonne won the second set 25-21, and tied the match up at 1-1.

The two teams traded punches in the third set. Through the first 20 points, it was a 10-10 tie. IW went on an 8-2 run from that point forward, getting two more kills from Landre, one from Miller and one from Sydney Ellsworth. IW had an 18-12 lead after 30 points.

Fontbonne scrapped back to come within three points, at 23-20, but Landre closed the game out with back-to-back kills to end the game at 25-20.

IW was hungry in the fourth set. Fontbonne scored two of the first three points to go up 2-1, but a Collette kill tied the game at 2-2. The two teams split the next two points to re-tie the game at 3-3, but IW took the lead after that and never gave it up.

The Tigers used a couple of aces from Landre to stay ahead late in the set, and Jenna Murphy eventually ended the game at 25-18 with an ace of her own.

'This is a game where Fontbonne is a pretty good team and we weren't really sure how they were going to show up,” Wagy said after the win. 'They can show up and put some teams down, and I'm really glad we could pull out the win tonight.”

Landre ended the night with 14 kills. Ellsworth had 13 kills. Miller finished with eight. Miranda Marshall had seven. Paige Kammerer finished with five kills. Collette had four. Ariel Smale finished with two, and Cass Schwamborn had one.

Kammerer led the team with 24 assists and 13 digs. Smale had 13 assists and 10 digs. Schwamborn finished the night with 11 digs.

The Tigers ended the night with six aces. Murphy, Landre and Kammerer had two aces apiece.

The Tigers moved to 9-19 overall and 6-10 in the conference with the win. They'll host Spalding on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 11 a.m.

The Spalding game will be the last game for IW this year and the final game for a handful of Tiger seniors; Marshall, Miller, Schwamborn, Smale, Collette, Ellsworth and Landre.

'They're really important,” Wagy said about her senior class. 'They've been with me for four years. They've gone through the ups and downs. They've gone through the really tough times and now they're starting to see the fruits of their labor. All of them are undersized players. Now they're so smart, they're so athletic, and they've just grown exponentially over these four years. I'm super proud of them.”