All good things must come to an end and on Sunday a battle of the last two undefeated teams in NJCAA D-II Volleyball took place in Champaign. The #2 Express rallied late to stun the #1 Cobras (3-2) to end their 25 match winning streak and their 44 consecutive wins streak (over two seasons). Owens won 20-25 25-23 25-18 21-25 17-15 as both teams battled until the very end. The defeat also ended the Cobras home winning streak at 91 straight matches, having not lost at home since 2011.
Fia Willis had 23 kills, 13 digs, 4 blocks and 3 aces.
Gillian Jones notched 14 kills and 7 blocks. Eloise van Velthooven scored 10 kills and 4 blocks and also secured 13 digs.
Alivia Dew had 7 kills and 4 blocks, and
Gabby Morrow had 6 kills and a team-high 9 blocks.
Leah Anderson dished 46 assists, and
Bailee Dunne had 32 digs. Owens, who had not lost a set coming into the weekend, improves to (20-0) after going 4-0 over the weekend, with wins over #1, #8, #15, and #20.
In the final match of the tournament, PC swept region foe Rend Lake 25-5, 25-8, 25-19. Willis had 11 kills, van Velthooven 7, Dew and
Katelyn Riffle had 6 apiece, and
Maddie Allen had 5. Anderson (14),
Ashley King (14) and
Anita Jenkins (11) shared setting duties collecting 39 assists between them, and the defensive trio of Dunne (13),
Sidney Heck (12) and
Maggie Sorenson (11) collected 36 digs collectively.
Parkland now stands at (26-1 5-0) ahead of an important region match on Wednesday night at home vs #6 ranked ICC who brings in a record of (14-3 2-0) on the season. A Cobra victory would virtually insure PC the top seed in the Region 24 tournament.
