The Prairie Fire Volleyball team took on the Illinois College Lady Blues. Clothed in power and pink jerseys, our women were ready serve up blocks and kills for a late lunch, and that they did taking the first game 25-22. As someone who missed all but the last three points, I can assure you all that if it was anything like the last three points, it was very exciting. On to the highlights from games 2-5

The second game began with what’s could only be described as an encouraging pep talk by head coach Pat Barry. Though our media pass was allegedly lost in the mail, if my lip reading was correct I could make out a “that was a good team effort”. An exciting start to the second game with multiple blocks by Senior Autumn Schneider and a couple of deep kills by first year Caroline Wolters, After coming out hot in the second game with three unanswered points, the lady blues of Illinois college began to fight back. However, our (prairie) fire could not be extinguished and out besties battled back to close the gap to 3 points. Everyone was on the edge of their seats coming out of the IC time out with the score 22-24 in favor of Lady Blues, and though the Lady Blues took this game, one thing we did learn: The fans of the Lady Blue do not enjoy a super fan sitting behind them.

That call was just like the coffee served at church last Sunday: weak

Knox College Super Fan on a point that clearly should have been in favor of the Fire.

The third contest started out HOT as our besties came out swinging to a 5-0 start. Before the phrase “what is a lady blue?” Could leave your mouth, our women had Tim Heimann Court buzzing louder than a bee caught in a Coke can thanks to the sKILLfulness of Catessa Duran. And while the score of the third game ended up in favor of the Lady Blues, our besties were not backed into a corner. No, they were red hot and ready for game four.

If this gym were a pizza store, our besties were serving up some stuffed crusts on the net—every time an opposing player went for a close range spike it was STUFFED and sent immediately to the ground by our front line. While the Lady Blues came out swinging, the Prairie Fire dominated sent them on their heels the entire match. There were Lady Blues diving here, Lady Blues diving there…it was a beautiful thing to watch our besties stretch the court and keep them off balance. On the mighty arm of Junior Kaitlyn Kashishian, our besties pulled ahead after consecutive serves in which the Lady Blues were very very not happy. The dynamic duo up front of Katie Anderson (senior) and Anne McKim (JR) were menaces on the tape in game four and were dishing up block after block. With the score 24-22 in favor of our besties, a miscommunication led the ball being played directly into the net by the Lady Blues, giving our besties, the Knox College Prairie Fire, a win game four 25-22.

SCORE. SCORE. SCORE. SCORE. CHANGE THE SCORE. OMG THE SCORE.

The entire gaggle of Illinois College fans hecklers to the scorers table after a point wasn’t put up .00000000000003 seconds on the board.🙄

Game five. With the match on the line the question becomes which would annoy me more: the IC dad’s who heckle in the way that says “if I would have made that pass, we would have won state” or my grumbly tummy from not eating breakfast. But I digress. With some exciting bumps, some sneaky sets, and some hard hitting spikes, game five was a hard fought match with the Lady Blues winning 15-7.

Of course we wish the outcome of the game were different, but this super duper fan is extremely proud of how well our women fought. Just like with any best friendship, we love them no matter what and are SO proud of how well they played. Mark my words: there are a lot more exciting matches to come from the Knox College Volleyball team.