The William Jewell volleyball team lost a hard-fought match to Illinois-Springfield in Great Lakes Valley Conference action Saturday afternoon. The Cardinals now stand at 4-9 overall and 0-4 in the GLVC.

Unlike a day before where the young squad seemed out of sorts, the Cardinals came out with a sense of urgency and played scrappy defense despite being out of system.

In set one Jewell had a 17-13 lead slip away on a string of errors as UIS took a 21-18 lead. Two kills from senior Kaylee Marquardt pulled the Cardinals back within 21-20 and eventually tied the game at 23. However a serve receive error would give the Prairie Stars the first set win 23-25.

The Cardinals came out with a renewed fire in set two and jumped out to an 11-5 lead on the back of kills from Paige Cunningham and Emery Driskel and two aces from Raechel Meisinger.  The lead would grow as large as 13 points before UIS went on a five point run to pull within 20-11. The two teams traded points through the remainder of the set but the lead was too large as the Cardinals finished it off 25-16 to tie the match at one set a piece.

In set three Jewell fell in an early 0-3 hole and had to battle from behind majority of the set. The Cardinals pulled to a tie at 12 points and 18 points only to see errors push the lead back in the favor of UIS. Two Marquardt kills got Jewell within 20-24 but UIS finished off the set 25-20.

In the final set, Jewell again fell into an early hole on multiple errors, forcing head coach Carolyn Raynes to call a timeout to refocus her team. The Cardinals battled to a 15-all tie but three errors gave the Prairie Stars a lead they never relinquished. An Olivia Tolberd ace and another Marquardt kill pulled Jewell within a point at 23-24 but a kill from Nikki Madoch would seal the game for Illinois Springfield.

As a team Jewell enjoyed their highest hitting percentage of the season at .221, totaling 52 kills on 149 attempts. Marquardt recorded her first double-double of the season by posting 16 kills and ten digs. Tolberd, Paige Cunningham, and Stefanie Richterkessing each posted double-digit digs with 13, 10, and 10 respectively. Richterkessing also posted a career-high 38 assists.

Raechel Meisinger had one of her best all-around games of the season as she notched a game-high 18 kills on a season-high .295 hitting percentage, to go along with 11 digs, and four service aces.

The Cardinals return to Liberty for a five-game home stand beginning with Quincy University on Friday, October 2 at 7:00 p.m. to kick off homecoming weekend for William Jewell, followed by Truman State University on Saturday at 5:00 p.m.