BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Hendrix lost to #8 Illinois Wesleyan 3-0 (19-25, 14-25, 17-25) on Saturday at the Shirk Center. The Warriors finished with 29 kills and a .161 hitting percentage, while Illinois Wesleyan totaled 45 kills and hit .303.
The Warriors trailed 5-0 in the opening set after Sophia Feeney served three aces during Ill. Wesleyan's first turn at the service line, and
Ana Bastos stopped the opening stretch with a kill from
Emma Blancovich. Ill. Wesleyan kept the margin through the middle of the set, moving from 12-6 to 15-6 on two Eleanor Palmer kills around a Warriors attack error. The Warriors cut a 17-8 deficit to 17-11 on kills by
Riley Brady,
Camryn Kennedy and Brady again, then got within 19-14 when Brady and
Addison Rud combined on a block. After Ill. Wesleyan reached 23-15, the Warriors scored four straight on kills by Bastos, Kennedy twice and
Alexis Mahan to pull to 23-19, but Alex Bardouniotis followed with a kill and the home team closed the set 25-19.
After
Ava Burns answered the opening Illinois Wesleyan point with a kill for a 1-1 tie, Ill. Wesleyan moved ahead 9-3 behind early kills from Graci Junis, Alex Bardouniotis and Juliana Valdez, plus a service ace from Junis. The Warriors worked back within 12-9 with
Faith Jones' service ace and a Kennedy kill, but Ill. Wesleyan pushed the score to 17-10 with kills from Junis and Valdez and two Warriors errors. Rud had two kills and Bastos added one as the Warriors kept scoring late, but after Ill. Wesleyan reached 23-13 and the Warriors got one point back, Bardouniotis delivered a kill and the closing service ace for a 25-14 set win.
Illinois Wesleyan put the Warriors in an early 3-0 hole behind a block by Eleanor Palmer and two Sophia Feeney service aces before Kennedy's kill from Jones stopped the opening run. The Warriors moved within 10-9 on a Kennedy kill, an Illinois Wesleyan setting error and a
Mary Addisyn Stubbs ace, and later stayed within 12-11 after a Brady-
Rachel Pearce block and Brady kill. Illinois Wesleyan moved out to 16-12 on kills by Graci Junis, Cailin Shannon and Alex Bardouniotis and a Lauren O'Brien ace, and after
Enaiya Thompson and Rud combined on a block, Shannon had three kills during a four-point run that made it 20-13. Pearce put down two late kills and Kennedy added another at 24-16, but Palmer ended the set for Illinois Wesleyan at 25-17.
The Warriors' most sustained push in the first set came late, when Bastos, Kennedy twice and Mahan recorded kills in a four-point stretch that moved the set from 23-15 to 23-19. Illinois Wesleyan took the next two points to close the first set 25-19.
Within 5-3 early in the second set, the Warriors saw Illinois Wesleyan score four straight points to move the set to 9-3. The Warriors answered in spots with a Jones service ace and kills from Kennedy, Mahan, Brady, Rud and Bastos, but did not put together a longer scoring stretch. Ill. Wesleyan finished the set 25-14.
In the third set, the Warriors stayed within a point midway through as Kennedy's kill, an Ill. Wesleyan setting error and
Mary Addisyn Stubbs' ace cut the deficit to 10-9. After the Warriors got back within 16-13 on a block by Thompson and Rud, Illinois Wesleyan scored the next four points to open a 20-13 margin. Pearce and Kennedy added late kills, but the Warriors dropped the set 25-17.
Jones led the Warriors with 19 digs and added a service ace. Kennedy finished with a team-high eight kills on 19 attacks. Rud recorded six kills without an attack error, hit .500 and added two block assists. Blancovich led the Warriors with 13 assists and added five digs.
The loss drops Hendrix to 2-1 on the year. They will head to Memphis next weekend to take part in the Rhodes Invitational, where they will take on the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and Rhodes.
