The William Jewell Volleyball team took a big step in their quest to make a move upwards in the Great Lakes Valley Conference as they swept Illinois Springfield 3-0 by scores of 25-17, 26-24 25-18 on Friday night in the Mabee Center. The 2016 home opening win was the Cardinals fourth consecutive, eighth of the season and second GLVC victory of the year matching both win totals from all of last season. Jewell now stands at 8-5 overall and 2-1 in the league. 

The opening set was a back and forth affair with neither team gaining more than a two point advantage until Jewell broke away 21-15 behind kills from Paige Cunningham (3) and Grace Miller and were aided by an Olivia Tolberd ace. Three UIS errors and two more kills, this time from Jenna Rau and Madeline Johnson gave Jewell the 25-17 opening set win. 

In set two it was the Prairie Stars who gained an early lead grabbing an 13-8 advantage before committing four errors and and seeing kills fall from Cunningham and Miller as Jewell took momentum and the lead 15-13, forcing UIS to burn both timeouts in a matter of minutes. The visitors did not go quietly however, as the Stars made a furious rally late in the set. With Jewell up by  four UIS recorded five kills to tie the game at 24 before a Cunningham kill and another Tolberd ace put a stamp on the set and gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead at the break. 

After the intermission Jewell struggled early allowing the Prairie Stars to jump on top 6-1 before the Cards put together a 9-2 run behind eight consecutive service points from Amy Lindhorst. During the run Cunningham had three more kills while Leslie Booth had two to push Jewell from down five to up three at 10-7 forcing another UIS timeout. From that point it was all Jewell as the Cardinals rattled off eight kills, and were aided by six UIS errors to seal the match 25-18. 

As a team Jewell hit .214 and held their opponent to just .079, which is the second best this season for the Cardinals. Cunningham continued to impress putting up 15 kills and committing no errors on 28 attempts for a .536 clip. Miller added eight on 13 attempts and Rau six kills for a .462 attack percentage. Alix Weigel posted a game-high 22 assists.

Defensively, Jewell collected 64 digs led by Tolberd's 22. Stefanie Richterkessing also added 17 in the winning effort while Johnson was a force at the net collecting five blocks including two solos. 

The Cardinals continue GLVC play on Saturday with a tough test against McKendree University. First serve is set for 3:00 p.m. in the Mabee Center.