Lady Eagle’s Volleyball vs. LaGrange College

The Lady Eagles won their fifth match of the season against the LaGrange College Panthers, an NCAA Division III opponent. The match went five sets and was a close contest, with both teams scoring 65 points and recording 51 kills each.

LaGrange maintained a small lead in the first set up to 11-7 before the Lady Eagles went on a 14-2 run to take a commanding 21-13 lead. The Panthers tried to claw their way back into the set, going on an 8-3 run to bring the score to 24-21. But the Lady Eagles won the next point off a kill from freshman Megan Kinsey to take the first set 25-21. Set two was much closer, with neither team leading by more than four points. But at 17-17, LaGrange went on a 4-1 run to take a 21-18 lead. Sensing the shift in momentum, Coach Calyn Ohman took a timeout. While the timeout helped stop the bleeding, the lead was too much for the Lady Eagles to close the gap, with LaGrange winning it 25-21.

The Lady Eagles struggled in the third set, committing eight attacking errors early to allow the Panthers to take a commanding 14-5 lead. The Lady Eagles could put together a 5-1 run, but LaGrange quickly responded with a 5-0 run of their own, using that momentum to take set three, 25-17. In a must-win fourth set, the Lady Eagles went down 8-3 early but outscored LaGrange 6-1 in the ensuing points to tie the game at 9-9. No significant leads were taken until the Lady Eagles went on a 9-1 run to take a 24-19 lead before closing the set with a 25-21 win.

The tie-breaking fifth set accurately reflected the rest of the match, with the teams trading points throughout. Neither team led by more than three at any point, leading to a tie at 14-14. After a service error by LaGrange’s Journey Oden, the Lady Eagles needed just one point to seal the win. The match’s final point was back and forth before senior Kora Lathers landed a well-placed ball in the back left corner to win the point and the set, with a score of 16-14.