Friday afternoon got off to a good start for Franklin women's volleyball at the Windy City Invite at North Park University in Chicago, as the Grizzlies opened the tournament with a 25-18, 24-26, 25-23, 25-16 win over Wisconsin Lutheran.
Playing a second match just minutes later, however, Franklin ran out of gas in a 16-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-22 loss against Illinois College.
The split moves the Grizzlies' record to 5-4 overall on the year.
"We came out hot but the back-to-back matches got us," coach
Dillon Taylor said.
In the early match, Franklin used early kills from
Hope Moring and
Kaitlyn Lavy to take a 5-1 lead, and the visitors stayed on top from there. Moring set up consecutive kills from Lavy,
Leah Middleton and
McKenzie Schroeder to stretch it to 21-14 and pave the way to the win.
After dropping a close second set, the Grizzlies held on to take the all-important third. Wisconsin Lutheran rallied to tie the score at 20-20 and were still within reach at 24-23 before a Middleton kill closed it out. With the fourth set tied at 12-12, Franklin scored 10 of the next 11 points to take command, with Lavy registering three of her team-leading 13 kills during that stretch.
Middleton, Moring and
Lauren Kinsey each had nine kills to round out a well-rounded Franklin attack. Moring also handed out 23 assists, with
Brionna Linkel adding 18. Kinsey had seven blocks in the match, while
Campbell Clark pulled up 18 digs and Middleton 14.
"Our offense stayed incredibly balanced the entire match, and it gave WLC some serious problems," Taylor said of the win. "We are best when we are balanced and have great options all over the court."
Franklin assumed control of the first set against the Lady Blues, scoring four points in a row to expand its lead to 19-12. Kills by Lavy and Middleton started that mini-run, which was capped by one of Lavy's four aces.
The next three sets were not as kind to the Grizzlies, however. Illinois College scored three consecutive points to break a 14-14 deadlock in the second and maintained that lead the rest of the way. A third set that began with three straight Middleton aces saw the Lady Blues roar back from a 13-11 deficit by scoring seven of the next eight points to pull in front for good.
A back-and-forth fourth set saw Illinois College break a 19-19 tie with five straight points. Franklin fought off three match points to cut it to 24-22, but it could not complete the comeback bid.
"We struggled to execute offensively," Taylor said after the defeat. "We had them where we wanted them at the service line, with 13 aces."
Lavy and Middleton led the strong serving with four aces apiece; Lavy also had nine kills, while Middleton finished with seven kills and a team-leading 13 digs. Taylor also highlighted Franklin's blocking, as Kinsey had five more and
Mireily Colomba added four.
The Grizzlies have two more matches Saturday, with Kalamazoo at 10 a.m. EDT and the host Vikings at 12:30 p.m.
