Lady Crusaders very smooth in win over IC

OTTAWA — If volleyball is the most fun when you're playing your best, then the Marquette Lady Crusaders had an incredibly fun time on Thursday night.

In a non-conference home matchup with a young Indian Creek ballclub, the Lady Cru were as smooth and efficient as they've been this season and perhaps all of last, as well, using near-perfect serve receive to start an equally flawless fast-paced offense to generate an easy 25-10, 25-17 victory over the Lady Timberwolves here in Bader Gym.

With Addie McConnaughhay leading the defense with 12 digs and Emma Thomas adding 26 spot-on assists, seniors Grace Jeanblanc and Ellie Eager were the beneficiaries of those efforts with nine kills each, while Aubrey McCallum added five kills and match-best two blocks to the win.

So dominant were the Lady Cru in moving to 5-2 on the season that Indian Creek scored nearly twice as many points off the home team's service errors (11) than it got off of its own service (6, just one in the first set).

"Our serve receive was excellent tonight. I'm super proud of how far has come so far this season. That's made a huge difference when you want to run a fast offense," said MA coach Mindy McConnaughhay. "Our defense played really well tonight, too. I don't think many realize how tough it is to run a two-man primary, and these girls have worked their butts off to get that down ... and the hitting, that was really pretty. It was nice to see an open net as much as we did.

"We sped up the pace and the first set was super clean. In the second we had a little lull, but most of our mistakes in that set were aggressive ones and I'm OK with that. They picked up the pace again and finished it off strong. I'm very pleased with how we're playing right now."

A trio of kills and three points by Jeanblanc got the hosts out to an 8-3 start in the opener, and three kills by McCallum widened the gap to 11-4. But if the set wasn't decided in MA's favor already, the six service points in a row by McCallum that extended the margin to 18-5 surely did.

Three points by Thomas — two aces alternating with kills by Jeanblanc and Eager — got the Lady Crusaders out to a 4-1 in the second set before the lull that the coach saw allowed Indian Creek to climb back in it. Back-to-back blocks by Abbie Pigott on McCallum gave the visitors a 6-5 lead and a service error and tipping error by the Cru created a 10-10 tie.

But Eager stepped up in the clutch. A tip and a kill from the 6-foot senior coupled with a slam from Jeanblanc regained a 13-10 advantage and, after it slipped back to one point, Eager's consecutive kills took it to 15-12. Eager later notched a sideout kill and two service points — the last on Jeanblanc's final kill of the night — to make it 18-13.

A McCallum kill and block-kill on IC's Ava Splear around three points from Paige Cottingim close out the second-set win.

"Marquette played great tonight and our young team was intimidated," said IC coach Stephanie Crutcher, her club now 2-7 this season. "We don't see (an offense) like that a lot, so when you come against a team like that, its tough. We want to be a team like that and play a faster offense like they do ... We're just really inexperienced. This is the first time on varsity for a lot of our girls and even our seniors didn't see a lot of playing time last year behind a big senior class. We're learning, trying to find our own identity."