Volleyball squares off with Illinois Wesleyan in Exhibition

East Peoria, Ill. (August 28th, 2018) – A quality NCAA opponent for the ICC Cougars made their way to Lorene Ramsey Gymnasium for an exhibition match, and it was the Illinois Wesleyan Titans, a team that is picked to win its conference, the CCIW.

The first three sets all remained close for the most part, with no sets being determined by a double digit difference.

Despite the close scores, Illinois Wesleyan had begun to pull away in the opening set, forcing ICC to use a timeout, with the visiting Titans leading 22-16. That six-point spread wound up being just too much, as Illinois Wesleyan went on a 3-1 run to finish off the set, taking the opener, 25-17.

Things didn’t get off to an ideal start for ICC in the second set either, with the Cougars facing one of their biggest deficits of the match, down 16-7 at the timeout. The Cougars were able to out-score Illinois Wesleyan 13-9 the remainder of the set, but the Titans were already too far ahead, and took the second set as well, 25-20.

Another close set followed between the Titans and Cougars with 23-year Head Coach Kim Nelson-Brown for Illinois Wesleyan and 29th-year Head Coach Sue Sinclair for ICC engaging in a bit of a “good game of chess”, as worded by Sinclair. The third set was not enough for the Cougars to take at least one of the first three sets from the Titans, with Illinois Wesleyan taking the third by a score of 25-20.

Given this was an exhibition match, it was determined that there would be at least four sets, regardless of the sets won by either team. The score may ring a bell. After yet another back-and-forth battle, the Cougars came out on top this time, also by that same score of 25-20.

Turns out there would be a fifth set as well. The only difference was that it would be played to 15 points, something that worked out to ICC’s favor. It finished as the set with nearly the biggest point spread for the match, at 8 points, with ICC coming out on top, 15-8. However, back to the match being an exhibition, Illinois Wesleyan technically would’ve won the match if it was one that counted, three sets to two.

After the match, Coach Sinclair said there were multiple things that she would’ve liked to see improved in the exhibition.

“I probably couldn’t pick just one thing. We were statistically underperforming. Some of it was a passing problem, some of it was serving errors. Some of it was that they were effectively finding holes in our defense. We were maybe drifting a little bit on the blocks.”

Another thing that some fans may have noticed, normally a big factor in matches, is that Mary O’Brien (So. – Peoria Notre Dame HS) wasn’t getting the kills down that she usually would. Sinclair thinks it “could easily be both” that O’Brien was scouted well, and that she just didn’t have it tonight.

“They certainly served her initially in hopes of maybe just going at her, knowing that she would be our go-to hitter, but I think everybody’s going to know that Mary’s our go-to hitter. You look at her stats, she’s got twice as many swings as anybody else on the floor. Typically, she handles herself quite well with that. Probably going into the weekend, she had the best hitting percentage on our team. She didn’t have it early on.”

One player that saw her first action at Ramsey Gym seemed to impress Sinclair. That player would be Addi Pals (Fr. – Riverton HS).

“I think Addi came in and did an outstanding job. I think she hasn’t had as much floor time, and the fact that she came in and solidly took care of it both front row and back row. It was great to see. I think that she’s still in the phase of learning. She hasn’t had a chance to play that tempo.”

Illinois Wesleyan’s Kim Nelson-Brown did like what she saw out of her Titan team, who wrapped up pre-season matches with tonight’s exhibition.

“When we play these matches, we’re looking for them to expose our weaknesses. I think they’re (opponents) doing that. That gives us an idea of what we still need to work on moving forward.”

As mentioned, the Titans are picked to win their conference, the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW). Coach Nelson-Brown thinks that it’s something that she can use as a motivator for the season, but did add that they are more concerned with taking it one match at a time.

“We try to teach them that every game is the same. It’s great to be picked, but ultimately, you have to play that game every day. We’re just focusing on one game at a time.”

Given that both Nelson-Brown and Sinclair have distinguished careers at the helm of their respective schools, both coaches acknowledged how fun it is to coach against one another. Nelson-Brown said that the relationship has been building for a long time.

“I’ve known Sue since I was a player at ISU. It’s a long-standing relationship. I have the utmost respect for Sue. It’s always fun that we’re able to go again and play each other. I love that she’s still willing to do that, and it helps both of us prepare.”

Sinclair said that there’s a “fun” element to meeting up with Nelson-Brown. “I always like competing with Kim. You know that they’re going to make some adjustments and you’re going to make some adjustments. You know that they know enough about your program from what has been the tradition of the program.”

Although the statistics don’t officially count towards regular season stats, there are some numbers worth mentioning. Maddie McCunn (Fr. – Eureka HS) led the way in aces (3) and Assists (13). Jess Norris (So. – Washington HS) led in both blocks (6) and kills (10). Lastly, Sam Garcia (So. – Washington HS) and Mary O’Brien both tied for the lead in digs, both having 15.

The Cougars are off for a couple of days, before they start making their way down to Brenham, Texas, the site of the Blinn College Tournament, a tournament that Sinclair says features numerous NJCAA Division-I opponents. That begins on Friday, August 31st, with ICC playing at 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. that day.

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