Iowa-Grant is 2-8 against Southwestern since September of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Panthers will host the Wildcats at 7:00 p.m. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Iowa-Grant took a loss when they played away from home on Tuesday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Thursday. They put the hurt on Boscobel with a sharp 3-0 win. The victory continues a trend for the Panthers in their matchups with the Bulldogs: they've now won four in a row.
Not only was the match a shutout, it was a big one: Iowa-Grant took every set by at least ten points. The final score came out to 25-11, 25-14, 25-15.
Meanwhile, Southwestern beat Boscobel 3-1 last Thursday.
Southwestern had a slow start but a hot finish: after dropping the first set, they turned around to win the next three. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 22-25, 25-11, 26-16, 25-5.
Southwestern's win came from a few key players Iowa-Grant will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Riley Lewerke, who had 21 digs and two assists. Those 21 digs gave her a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Destiny Furlong, who had nine digs and five aces.
Southwestern was lethal from the service line and finished the match with 16 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least five aces in four consecutive matchups.
Iowa-Grant's win was their first in the conference, bumping their conference record up to 1-5 and their overall record up to 6-19. As for Southwestern, the victory was their first on the road , bumping their record up to 8-6.
