Successful Opening Week For Red Hawks

The Lady Red Hawks traveled to Rockford, Illinois this past weekend. The team played five matches and ended the tournament with a 3-2 record. The team swept Spoon River, St. Louis and RCTC in three and lost in four to Carl Sandburg and McHenry ranked #8 in the Nation. Setter Olivia Deeb ran the offense earning 156 assists, 19 kills, three aces, and 40 digs. Jillian Bruckner was our top attacker with 77 kills, a .298 hitting %, three assists, five aces, 9 digs, 5 solo blocks, and 7 assist blocks. Other top offensive players were Sammi Jurgensen with 33 kills, 2 assists, 21 digs, 1 solo block, and 1 assist block. Faith Lewis earned 27 kills, a .200 hitting %, 2 assists, 1 solo block, and 5 assists blocks. Olivia Still had 17 kills, 3 assists, 5 aces,23 digs, 3 solo blocks, and 4 assist blocks. Myah Hobson finished as our top blocker with 6 solo blocks, and 8 assist blocks, 14 kills, one ace and five digs. Rounding out the offense Melia Hanny had 10 kills, one ace, three digs, and one solo block.

The defense played incredibly well this weekend. Kaylee McDaniel and Jessica Hand split the libero role and did a great job defending our court. Kaylee had 47 digs, one kill, 10 assists and three aces. Kaylee earned MCCAA defensive player of the week because of her accomplishments. Jessica was not far behind with 42 digs, 1 kill, 14 assists, and 5 aces. Peyton Oman contributed 26 digs, one kill and two aces while Summer Hough earned 7 digs, and 1 assist. The Red Hawks grew as a team and walked away excited for the season.

They then headed to St. Clair Community Colllege on Wednesday, August 23, 2023 to compete against St. Clair Community Colllege (SC4) and rival Western Conference team Lansing Community College. The Red Hawks started out strong defeating SC4 the first two games of the match. The Skippers turned on the heat winning game three and four pushing us to a 5 game match. The Red Hawks pushed hard and finished the 5th game 15-12 for the win! Next up would be the Lansing Stars. Both teams played very well but the Lansing Stars offense proved to be more efficient earning them the win 25-22, 20-25 and 23-25. Olivia Deeb as the setter earned 26 assists, two kills, one ace, three assist blocks and 13 digs. Jillian Bruckner was our top attacker with 13 kills and two digs. Sammi Jurgensen and Faith Lewis earned four kills each while Faith had three digs and three assist blocks as well. Riley Stack, Melia Hanny and Oliva Still all contributed two kills each. In the back row, Kaylee McDaniel earned 13 digs, and three assists while Jessica Hand had 6 digs and an ace. The team fought hard but their inconsistency in the front row and inability to dig successfully lead to their defeat this time. The team will learn and grow from this loss and will be better prepared when they meet up with Lansing for conference play. The Red Hawks went 1-1 at the SC4 event and are currently 4-3 overall.