Volleyball Keeps Postseason Hopes Alive With Sweep over Eureka

CARLINVILLE, ILL. -- Blackburn College Volleyball kept their postseason hopes alive with a 3-0 sweep over Eureka College in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action. The Beavers captured the victory with set scores of 25-8, 25-11, and 25-18.

The sweep is the second-straight sweep over the Red Devils, as BC captured a sweep at Eureka on Friday, October 27. It also marks their third straight sweep, and fourth sweep in their last five matches. 

Leading the team was freshman Tessa Funderburk with 20 assists and four aces. Freshman Kenadee Frey added 11 assists a team-high seven aces. 

Junior Cara Pence notched eight kills to lead the Beavers while senior Kyleigh Marty chipped in with seven. Junior Jessica Muckensturm and senior Emily Eitzenhefer both added six kills. 

Blackburn's offensive attack was aided with 13 total aces. In addition to Frey's seven and Funderburk's four, freshman Tam Nguyan and senior Emilie King both had one. 

Nguyen paced the defense with 10 digs. Senior Holly Heuerman contributed nine with King posting eight. 

At the net, Blackburn finished a total of five team blocks. Sophomore Zoe Mitchell tallied two solo blocks and two block assists while Pence also notched a solo block. King and Eitzenhefer both chipped in with a block assist. 

The Beavers opened the match with six straight points to take an early 6-0 lead behind three aces from Funderburk. The guests managed to make the set 7-3 but it was the closest the set would be as BC rallied to take the first set 25-8, with an ace from Frey sealing the set win.

In the second set, Blackburn scored six straight points to help pull out to a 10-2 lead. Eureka answered to make it 10-6 but BC rallied on their way to a 25-11 set victory which Eitzenhefer sealed with the set-clinching kill.

The final set saw the Red Devils take their only lead of the night by scoring the set's first point. The hosts answered with a kill from Eitzenhefer. The teams then traded points and eventually saw the set tied at 8-8. A Marty kill broke the tie and the Beavers pulled ahead with a 10-1 rally to take an 18-9 advantage. With the score 23-12, Eureka attempted to make a comeback and pulled withing 23-17, but kills from Pence and Muckensturm sandwiched a BC service error to give Blackburn the 25-18 set win.

BC heads into the weekend to take on Mississippi University of Women and Principia College Saturday in a SLIAC tri-match at home. The Beavers are one match ahead of the Owls in the SLIAC Standings, but MUW holds the tiebreaker over the Beavers. As long as both teams defeat Principia, the winner of Saturday's 10 a.m. match between MUW and Blackburn will earn the final SLIAC Conference Tournament spot.