Cougars Volleyball Sweeps Carl Sandburg
East Peoria, IL – Exhibition play is now over for the Illinois Central College Cougars (1-0). They kicked the regular season off with the Chargers from Carl Sandburg College (0-1) in Lorene Ramsey Gym on Wednesday night.
The first set was close, just like a majority of the Cougars’ sets against St. Francis Tuesday. This time, the Cougars never had a lost set. With small runs here and there for both sides, it looked like another potential 4-set match was on the horizon. ICC took the opening set, 25-21. Despite just a 4-point setback to start things, Carl Sandburg Head Coach Todd Winkler thought that there were things to correct right out of the gate.
“The problem was just not being in sync yet. We haven’t played enough.”
The Cougars continued roaring in the second set, only on occasion allowing Carl Sandburg to creep back into the game, but nothing more. It was around this point that players like Taylor Shaw and Mary O’Brien really solidified a great game for themselves, combining to finish the match with 14 kills (7 each). It was a strong set overall for ICC, and they had every bit of the momentum by set’s end, when they had come out on top to take a 2-0 set lead by a score of 25-21.
As is the case in practically all sports, you want to finish strong. The Cougars did that and some. They were really able to slam the door shut on Carl Sandburg. From good serves to good blocks to good assists, the Cougars had everything going for them in the final set, especially Kenzie Rhodes, who finished the night with 29 assists. Also highlighting the Cougar statistics was Jodi Daniel, who capped it all off with 13 digs. To end the night, the Cougars took the third and final set, 25-19.
After the game, ICC Head Coach Sue Sinclair praised the efforts of her substitutions.
“The most exciting part about what I see is that I have players that can come off the bench and perform immediately.”
Sinclair went on to specifically mention the efforts of both Jackie Beaver and Haley Peterson. The performance of the reserve players for the Cougars seems to be off to a great start, and they will look to keep that up or perhaps even improve.
It is a long stretch before the Volleyball program returns home. The next match for the Cougars will be at a scrimmage tournament hosted by the University of Illinois-Springfield this Saturday. Following that is a scrimmage August 29th against the Illinois Wesleyan Titans in Bloomington. Lastly, in what should be a unique team-building trip on September 1st and 2nd, the Cougars travel to the Houston, Texas area to take part in the San Jacinto Tournament. There is also a tournament to take place in the coming weeks afterwards at Kirkwood College in Iowa. The next home match isn’t until their own Tournament September 15th and 16th.
To follow the Cougars ‘road trip’, make sure to follow them on Twitter (@ICCVolleyball). For all things ICC Sports, follow @ICCSportsLive.