#12 Kirkwood defeats LLCC 25-12, 19-25, 25-20, 25-15
LLCC defeats Muskegon 16-25, 25-19, 18-25, 25-19, 18-16

GAME ONE:
LLCC started off with the opening match of the Parkland Invitational against Kirkwood who made last season's Final Four.  The Loggers started fast with a quick 3-0 lead before getting aced twice with three swings sailing long, permitting Kirkwood to open a 7-3 lead that  exploded to 19-6 behind several more unforced Logger errors and solid swings from the Kirkwood right-side offense, leading to a 25-12 win.  In the second set, LLCC came out fast behind a balanced attack and kills from freshmen Annika Black and Mary Hill, followed by two by fellow freshman Kennedy Bauer as the Loggers took a quick 8-4 lead and held the distance to 16-12 when Kirkwood had its own run of errors and the Loggers found themselves with a 21-12 lead, holding on to win 25-19 with two more kills from Mary Hill hitting out of the middle.  The third set started as a seesaw affair as the two sides traded points to 9-9 before 3 Lincoln Land unforced errors and two gigantic Kirkwood blocks broke it open to a 5-point margin.  The Loggers sided out with Kirkwood the rest of the way, but never closed the gap, losing 25-20. In the final set, the Loggers traded points to five before a multitude of errors struck, opening a 14-6 gap for the Iowa squad.  Kirkwood's side-out passing and offense dominated the rest of the way, keeping the Loggers from closing, leading to an eventual 25-15 deciding set.   "It's a broken record.  You can't make unforced errors against great teams and Jill [Williams, the Kirkwood head coach]'s team is that good. You want to keep your unforced errors at under 8-9 per set and we were up at 14 in a couple of those.  Add in the errors Kirkwood forced us into--you can't win that way," Coach Dietz said afterwards.  "When it was over, Coach Sunderlin and I figured out one of the problems we're having and we can't fix it for today, but it will get fixed tomorrow morning and going forward.  A Porsche's just a big lawn ornament if you don't put fuel in it."

vs. Kirkwood
Digs: Bates 17, Hill 11
Aces: Hill 3, Bates 2
Blocks: Melton 6, Volk 2, Bauer 2
Assists: Volk 31
Kills: Bauer 13, Hill 12

GAME TWO:
In the nightcap, the Loggers played a doozy against the Jayhawks of Muskegon, Michigan, winning a five-set barnburner.  Again LLCC started slow with two runs of hitting four consecutive balls out of bounds that helped open an 8-pt gap.  The Jayhawks opened it to twelve, though the final difference was only 9.  In the second set, LLCC's leading hitters for the match, freshmen Annika Black (16 kills) and Kennedy Bauer (14 kills) started fast quickly giving the squad a 5-0 lead.  Muskegon took advantage of LLCC defensive lapses to tie it at 11.  LLCC built the lead again only to see the Jayhawks tie it at 19 with three more LLCC errors before it was the Michigan squad's turn as they gave up six consecutive points to give LLCC a 25-19 win.  The third set saw both teams make errors; the Jayhawks had three service errors to start while LLCC countered with a missed serve, a net error, and a ball hit long.  Only one of the first eleven points was earned.  At 6-6, both teams got things squared away and the sides alternated points to 11s and then 16s before six straight LLCC errors blew it open for Muskegon, topped with a missed LLCC serve at 18-23 and hitting it out at 18-24.  Lincoln Land did not go away though, though it looked like they would in the fourth set, starting this one with four more errors, leading to a 7-2 deficit before a Mary Hill block and Hill/Kate Volk tandem block helped tie the game back up at 7.  It stayed tied to 12-12 before Annika Black created some separation with two kills, followed by Natalie Bates' 2 aces which helped create a six-point lead that the Loggers carried to the end 25-19.  Then came the fifth set which looked like a repeat of the previous week's contest versus Neosho as Lincoln Land rolled to a quick lead behind two kills by Ashley Melton and a Kennedy Bauer aces.  Up 7-3, Lincoln Land then gave up seven consecutive points to trail 10-7.  LLCC tied it at 11 and the two teams alternated points to 16 before a Muskegon hitting error gave the Loggers an 18-16 win to take the match.  After the match, Coach Dietz said, "It's good to play five-set matches, I guess.  You've got to practice that pressure and you don't get that in practice, but I think Rick [Wykse, the Jayhawk coach] would tell you, that was a sloppy match for both teams.  You can see the potential on both sides of the net, what both teams' high ends look like...just not consistent at this point.  We've got more things we have to work on--every time we solve one thing, there's another we have to work on.  Today's matches showed us that, showed us where we are improving, where we need help.  The big ones today--I thought Kate Volk did a good job running the offense for us and I liked our serve-receive against Muskegon.  That's what helped us in that fifth set; every pass was usable and that's huge.  Huge."

vs. Muskegon
Digs:Bates 29, Bauer 22
Aces: Bates 2, Bauer 1, Hill 1
Blocks:Hill 7, Black 4
Assists: Volk 40
Kills: Black 16, Bauer 14

Record:12-8
Next: SAT vs. Vincennes (1pm) and Owens (5pm)