A day after two seniors hit career milestones for the Monmouth College volleyball team, a group of freshmen led the Fighting Scots to an impressive split at the UW-LaCrosse invite on September 21. Monmouth (8-6) lost a tough 5-set match to Nebraska Wesleyan before rallying to beat Luther College in five.
Freshman Kaylee Celus (Annawan, Illinois) had 42 kills on the day while adding four aces, freshman Tyla Mattson (Morton, Illinois) delivered 68 assists while classmates Paige Foltz (Vinton, Iowa), Lauren Aldrich (Wauconda, Illinois) and Chloe Strachan (Reynolds, Illinois) combined for 58 kills, eight blocks and four aces.
"Going 2-2 against this level of competition is a very good weekend," said head coach Derrick Broekemier. "We didn't make it easy with a couple long 5-setters but we had people step up in big moments."
The Scots and UNW had 14 ties and six lead changes in the first set of the morning match. The Prairie Wolves won the set 26=24 and never trailed in the second set with a 25-15 win, Monmouth bounced back in a big way, taking the third set 25-21 and the fourth 25-22. But UNW prevailed 15-12 in the fifth set to hand the Fighting Scots a second 5-set loss.
Celus led the way with 21 kills while hitting .264 and Aldrich added 14 kills. Mattson had a career-high 35 assists and Celus added four aces. Senior Savannah Robinson (Delavan, Illinois) posted 18 digs and Mattson added 15. Foltz had four blocks in the match
Scots Rally Past Norse
In the second match of the day, Celus posted eight kills in the opening set as Monmouth won 25-16. Luther stole the second set 27-25 with a late rally and then stormed past the Scots 25-17 in the third set. Monmouth rallied to control and win the fourth set 25-18. Luther led the fifth set early but Aldrich had two straight kills and finished the set with five. Foltz finished off the set and the match with a kill at 15-8.
Celus again led with 21 kills while Aldrich had 14. Mattson delivered 33 assists and senior Paige Bergschneider (Alexander, Illinois) added 12. Robinson had 26 digs and Layne Wright (Davenport, Iowa) had six aces. Strachan added four aces while Alana Robertson (Mapleton, Illinois) had four blocks,
MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Bergschneider is eighth on the Monmouth career assists list with 1493 as she passed Alexis Keller on September 21. Wright is now 14th on the all-time aces list and she went over 1000 career points on September 21. Robinson had a season-high 26 digs against Luther and she posted 85 digs on the weekend at 4.5 per set. Celus has at least 21 kills in four straight matches and at least 10 kills in 11 of her 12 matches on the season. She had 89 kills on the weekend at 4.68 per set. Mattson has at least 23 assists in four straight matches and she had 117 total for the weekend at 6.16 per set. Aldrich had a career-high 14 kills in both matches September 21 and posted 46 on the weekend . Foltz had 24 kills and 12 blocks while Strachan had 26 kills and five blocks in Wisconsin Robertson had 13 kills and 11 blocks in her three matches for the tournament. The next home match is against Illinois College on Oct. 11.
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