CHICAGO, Illinois—The Prairie Fire volleyball team traveled to North Park on Friday and Saturday.
 
Knox (3-5) dropped all three matches on the weekend against a trio of tough opponents.
 
 On Friday night, the Prairie Fire squared off against the hosts. The Vikings won the first set 25-10, but Knox rebounded in the second and third sets. Tied 24-all in the second, North Park was able to get two consecutive points to earn the 26-24 win. Knox took control of the third set early on and cruised to a 25-19 victory. The Vikings responded with a 25-15 win in the fourth set to seal their victory.
 
The early match on Saturday against Illinois Institute of Technology saw the first set come down the wire, with the Scarlet Hawks coming out on top 26-24. Knox led 22-20, but IIT used a three-point swing to take the 23-22 lead. The Prairie Fire rallied back to a 24-23 lead, but the Scarlet Hawks used another three-point run to finish out the set. IIT took an early 11-6 lead in the second set, but Knox used a 9-3 run to come within one point of the Scarlet Hawks. IIT closed on a 10-5 run to take the second set 25-19. The Scarlet Hawks rushed out to a 5-0 lead in the third set, but the Prairie Fire stormed back to take a 7-6 lead. After a pair of ties at 9-all and 10-all, IIT started pulling away. Knox was not going down without a fight as they forced another tie at 20-20. The Scarlet Hawks used a five point run to seal the set and the match.
 
The final match against Anderson started with a 25-12 win for the Ravens, but Knox rebounded for a 25-19 win in the second set. The Prairie Fire jumped out to a 10-6 lead in the third set, but Anderson rallied to take a 13-12 lead. After some back-and-forth, the Ravens took a 23-18 lead. Knox came back to force a 23-23 tie, but quickly fell behind 25-24. The Prairie Fire secured the final three points to earn a 27-25 victory in the third set. The Ravens took control from there as they won the final two sets 25-16 and 15-3.
 
Katie Anderson racked up 34 kills, a solo block, and three block assists in three matches. Autumn Schneider added 24 kills, two solo blocks, and two block assists. Marissa Akers finished with five total blocks to lead the team and added 20 kills. Kylie Wolf added 63 assists and Mady Ferris accumulated 73 digs.
 
"We are a young, developing program who is one season of chemistry away from being great," said head coach Ashley McDonough. "We see flashes of it every few contacts. Right now we are focusing on learning good fundamentals, maintaining an aggressive attitude from start to finish, and breaking our youngsters of their high school habits. The first-years have brought a whole new level of talent to the gym and it's very exciting. Mady Ferris continues to be an invaluable asset to our defense. She's been a major leader for us and has done a great job guiding her blockers. Overall we are taking this one point at a time. The staff and athletes share the same vision and want the same things. Eventually everything is going to fall into place."

Knox returns to action on at Eureka on September 11.