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Lindenwood Women Take Two Of Three On Opening Weekend
The Lady Lions lost the opener, but came back to win the next two at an event in Normal, Ill.
NORMAL, IL - The Lindenwood University women's volleyball team began the new season with a bang at the Linda Herman Volleyball Classic in Normal, Ill.
The Lions played three tight matches at Illinois State University's CEFCU Arena and came home with a pair of nice wins.
Lindenwood lost the actual season opener to Central Michigan, in a five-set thriller. The Chippewas won the first two sets by scores of 25-22 and 25-21, but a resilient Lindenwood club responded by winning sets three and four by scores of 25-23 and 26-24.
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Central Michigan won the final set 16-14 to take the match.
Addie McAleer had a match-high 21 kills, while teammates Nyah Wilson and Ashley Geluck added 13 kills and 12 kills, respectively. Setter Attie Otten had 51 assists.
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In the second match of the day, Lindenwood made quick work of Bellarmine -- defeating the Knights three sets to one.
Rebecca Janke and Anna Kraemer both had 11 kills. Geluck had 10, to go along with two blocks and two aces.
The match of the weekend though, was probably Lindenwood's showdown with Illinois State on Saturday.
The Redbirds won the opening set, 25=14. But the Lions came right back to win sets two and three by scores of 25-22 and 25-15.
Illinois State wouldn't go lightly and won set four, 25-16.
In the fifth set, Lindenwood won seven of the first nine points and never looked back. Illinois State did get within two points on three different occasions, including at 13-11, but the Lions got kills from McAleer and Janke on the final two points to close out the match.
"This was a great team win," Lindenwood head coach Will Condon said. "Obviously we started off slow but the important thing was how we responded. Illinois State has a lot of weapons and they were able to make adjustments so we were constantly having to adapt."
Janke had 19 kills in all. McAleer had 10, while Wilson and Otten both had nine. Dana Grib had 19 digs on defense and contributed to the offense with two aces.
"I think this is one of those matches where you can use this experience to help you throughout the season," Condon said. "Rebecca showed she can score a lot of different ways and really kept them off balance. Dana did a great job this weekend balancing out our defense."
The Lions will be back in action next weekend, competing in the Northeastern Tournament at Northeastern University in Boston.
Lindenwood's first home action will come the following weekend, when the Lions host the Lindenwood Invitational at Hyland Arena on September 13 and 14.
