GALESBURG, Illinois - The Prairie Fire volleyball team split a pair of matches during the first day of the #Strong Tournament.
 
In the first match, Knox College jumped on Iowa Wesleyan from the gate. A kill by Autumn Schneider punctuated what would be three unanswered points by the Prairie Fire. An error would give Iowa Wesleyan their first points of the game. Knox would extend their league to six before Iowa Wesleyan would call their first timeout of the game. 
 
After the timeout, Knox stayed on the attack with a kill by Katie Anderson to make the score 13-6. However, Iowa Wesleyan would not go down without a fight. The Tigers would respond with 3 consecutive points to cut the deficit to 5. The Prairie Fire would answer again and stay in the control for the remainder of the first match. The first match would be a win for Knox College 25-17. 
 
The women's volleyball team would pick up where they left off and start the match with a commanding 3-0 lead. Catessa Duran and Kaitlyn Haase got the first two kills of the game. After going down by three, Iowa Wesleyan would respond by tying the game. They would never get the lead though as Knox scored five consecutive points to bring the lead to 12-7. The run by the Prairie Fire caused a timeout by Iowa Wesleyan. 
 
The Prairie Fire would stay persistent and extend the lead to 10 causing yet another timeout by Iowa Wesleyan. A kill by Duran was the nail in the coffin. 
 
The third set was more of a back-and-forth affair. The Tigers took the first two points from the Prairie Fire, but Knox would score five straight points to seize control for the time being. A kill by Marissa Akers would make the score 16-11 and the Prairie Fire seized control to win 25-21.
 
Catessa Duran and Autumn Schneider would lead the team in kills with 10. Schneider also added four blocks. Mady Ferris notched 27 digs and Kylie Wolf tallied four aces.
 
In the nightcap, Knox fought with a very good St. Mary of the Woods team. The Pomeroys jumped out to a 12-6 lead, but the Prairie Fire stormed back to tie the game at 22-all and won the first set 26-24.
 
St. Mary jumped out to a 12-5 lead in the second set, but this time Knox was not able to gain much ground. The Pomeroys finished the set up 25-16.
 
The third set was fairly close throughout the early going, but St. Mary pulled away in the middle of the set to win the set 25-15.
 
The Pomeroys took a sizable 19-6 lead in the fourth set, but Knox fought back to a 23-16 deficit. St. Mary held on to win the set 25-17.
 
Duran ended with 14 kills to lead the Prairie Fire and Ferris added 29 digs.
 
"We came out strong in the first four sets today," said head coach Pat Barry. "We just could not quite finish the day on the same note."
 
Knox will look to finish strong as they battle Central and MacMurray on Saturday.