GREENVILLE, Ill. — The Greenville University women's volleyball team opened its home conference schedule in dominant fashion Wednesday night, defeating Eureka College in straight sets, 25-12, 29-27, 25-18, in a St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match at H.J. Long Gymnasium.
The Panthers improved to 8-5 overall and 1-0 in SLIAC play, while Eureka fell to 7-8 overall and 1-2 in the conference.
Greenville controlled the opening set from the outset, hitting .483 as a team and recording 17 kills in a convincing 25-12 win.
The Panthers then survived a tightly contested second set that featured eight ties and multiple lead changes before pulling out a 29-27 victory.
Greenville closed the match with another strong performance in the third set, securing the sweep with a 25-18 win.
The Panthers finished with a .211 hitting percentage and held Eureka to .097. Greenville also owned a 45-29 advantage in kills and recorded six team blocks.
Alyssa Company led the Greenville attack with nine kills on 15 attempts while posting a match-best .533 hitting percentage.
Claudia Bonacorsi added nine kills, while
Makenna Reckling and
Kennedy Legendre each contributed eight kills.
Sierrah Downey also finished with eight kills as five Panthers recorded at least eight kills in the balanced offensive effort.
Emma Ratermann directed the offense with 40 assists, helping Greenville reach 45 kills on the night.
Defensively,
Laney Baldrige paced the Panthers with eight digs. Bonacorsi and
Brooke-Lynn Mapa each added seven digs, while Greenville totaled 41 digs as a team.
Eureka was led by Alena Loesch with nine kills and Laynee Whitsitt with eight. Kaitlyn Robinson recorded 18 assists for the Red Devils.
Greenville will look to build on its conference-opening victory as the Panthers continue SLIAC play this weekend at Westminster. Â They play Blackburn at noon before a showdown against Westminster at 2 p.m.
