CARLINVILLE, ILL. – Blackburn College Volleyball celebrated Senior Day by clinching a return to the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament with a 3-2 victory over Mississippi University for Women and a 3-0 sweep over Principia College.
In the Beavers victory over Principia, junior Cara Pence smashed her 313th kill of the season to set a new single season school record, beating the old record of 312 set by Victoria Bowens in the 2014 season.
Pence helped power the Beavers to the victory over MUW with a game-high 17 kills, which ties for her season high. Seniors Emily Eitzenhefer and Jessica Muckensturm both added eight kills. Freshman Tessa Funderburk aided the effort with 22 assists with freshman Kenadee Frey chipping in with 16.
Frey also led the team with five aces while senior Emilie King notched four.
Defensively, King paced the squad with 22 digs. Freshman Tam Nguyen posted 21 and Funderburk had 20.
In the match, BC jumped out to an 8-3 lead but the Owls responded to tie the opening set 9-9. However, the Beavers rebounded and allowed just five more points as they took the first set 25-14.
The strong showing continued into the second set for Blackburn as they came out with an 8-0 advantage. The guests fought back and eventually pulled the set to a 22-21 BC lead, but the Beavers closed out the set with a 3-1 rally to take a 2-0 match lead.
MUW answered by taking the next two sets to set up the deciding fifth set. In the set, the Owls took an early lead, but BC responded to eventually tie the set at 8-8. A kill by Pence and an ace from King gave Blackburn a 10-8 lead. After a BC error made it 10-9, Pence notched a kill, followed by an Owl error and an ace from junior Madison Watret to make it 13-9 and forced an MUW timeout.
Out of the break, Eitzenhefer tallied a kill to give the Beavers the 14-10 lead. After an error from BC, Pence sealed the victory with her 17th kill to give Blackburn the 15-10 set win and a 3-2 match victory.
To help seal the playoff berth Blackburn also had to defeat Principia, which they did with a 25-12, 25-11, 25-8 sweep. King led the Beavers with 11 kills and Eitzenhefer tallied 10. Muckensturm and Kyleigh Marty both posted seven. The Beavers finished the match by hitting at a .410 clip.
Funderburk notched 18 assists with Frey adding 17 assists and a team-best six aces. King chipped in with five and Funderburk had four. As a team, BC finished with 17 aces.
Senior Holly Heuerman posted a team high 15 digs with King chipping in with 13 digs.
Prior to the game, the team honored all of the accomplishments of their senior class, consisting of King, Eitzenhefer, Heuerman, and Marty.
The Beavers improve to 12-20 on the season and will return to action on Wednesday for the first round of the SLIAC Tournament. Opponent, location and time will be announced once it becomes available.