Galesburg, IL – The Prairie Fire got off to good starts in each set, but Carroll University responded with big runs to claim a Midwest Conference victory on Friday night at Memorial Gym.

The Pioneers (11-11, 3-1 MWC) defeated Knox 25-17, 25-14, 25-19 for the 3-0 victory.  The win was Carroll’s second straight and fifth in the last six matches.  The Pioneers moved into a third place tie with Monmouth College in the Midwest Conference standings.

The Prairie Fire (2-23, 0-4 MWC) scored the first three points in all three sets to take the early lead.  However, Carroll had an answer each time.

The Pioneers scored nine straight points in the first set to increase a 12-10 lead to 21-10.  Carroll, trailing 10-9 in the second set, rolled off nine straight points for an 18-10 lead.  The Pioneers were down 5-4 in the third set before scoring 10 unanswered points to go up 14-5.  The Prairie Fire outscored Carroll 15-11 the rest of the way, but it wasn’t enough.

Junior Kaylie Prince (Westminster, CO, Standley Lake) led Knox with nine kills.  First-year Casey Stachelski (Joliet, IL, Plainfield) had 15 assists and a team-high 10 digs.  Senior Kristin McDonald (Chicago, IL, Regina Dominican) added seven kills and seven digs and junior Amber Eisha (South Wilmington, IL, Gardner-South Wilmington) contributed four digs and nine digs.

Emily Goebert of Carroll led all players with 11 kills and Samantha Derynda had 28 assists for the Pioneers.

Knox resumes play on Saturday, October 13 at home against Ripon College (8-16, 2-3 MWC) at 1:00 p.m.  The Red Hawks lost 3-0 at Monmouth College on Friday night, their third loss in the last four matches.

The match between the Prairie Fire and Ripon will be streamed live on the Web beginning at 12:55 p.m. at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/knox.portal#.

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