Alma College

 
Wheaton, Ill. – The Alma College volleyball program experienced a peak and a valley in its pair of contests on Saturday while participating in the Marilyn Scribner Invitational, sweeping Concordia-Chicago before falling to Wheaton (Illinois) in straight sets.
 
The Basics:

• Score (Match 1)
  • Alma – 3
  • Concordia-Chicago – 0
    • (25-21, 25-16, 25-19)
• Score (Match 2)
  • Wheaton (Illinois) – 3
  • Alma – 0
    • (16-25, 21-25, 12-25)

• Records
  • Alma (5-7, 0-0 Michigan)
  • Concordia-Chicago (4-7, 0-0 Northern)
  • Wheaton-Illinois (5-8, 0-0 Illinois & Wisconsin)

• Location
  • Wheaton, Illinois – King Arena

• Series History
  • Concordia-Chicago
    • Scots Lead 3-1 (75%)
  • Wheaton (Illinois)
    • Scots Lead 4-1 (80%)

• Winning Streak
  • Concordia-Chicago
    • Scots (W1) / Cougars' Last Win: September 27, 2025 (3-0 / 23-25, 18-25, 21-25)
  • Wheaton (Illinois)
    • Thunder (W1) / Scots' Last Win: September 2, 2011 (3-2 / 25-14, 25-16, 23-25, 19-25, 16-14)

 
How It Happened:

• Concordia-Chicago

The first set was even throughout with the Cougars stringing together a pair of 4-0 rallies, but the Scots never trailed by more than one, using their own run of four unanswered towards the end of the set to claim it, 25-21.
 
Alma scored the first four and six of the first seven points in the second to maintain the lead before breaking things open following point 25, turning a 14-9 lead into a 19-9 advantage before coasting from there (25-16).
 
The trend of hot starts continued in favor of Coach Good's girls as they got past the halfway point ahead 15-8. Concordia would not go away quietly however, roaring back from down six and cutting the lead down to one via a 7-1 spurt (16-15). AC kicked it into a different gear from that point forward, registering ten of the final 14 to sweep the match, 25-19.

• Wheaton (Illinois)

The homestanding Thunder used four points in-a-row to move the line to 9-5 and the Scots narrowed the gap to 14-13 midway through set one. Six straight from there for Wheaton swung the momentum in WC's favor, ending at 25-16.
 
Alma never led in the second, putting in a last gasp effort with three straight at the end before ultimately falling 25-21.
 
Wheaton College set the third set on fire offensively, zooming out to a 17-7 upper-hand and winning the match (25-12) in large part due to a 16-kill, zero error showing in which they swung at a .533 clip.
 
Scots' Top Performers:

• Concordia-Chicago

Emily Carling was one kill away from a double-double, notching a Scots-most 11 digs (3.67 p/s), nine kills (3.00 p/s), and tying her career-high for service aces at five (1.67 p/s). Maggie McKale had a season/contest-best 11 (3.67 p/s) kills and was the only player with multiple blocks (2, 0.67 p/s), clubbing an impressive .391 hitting percentage. Rounding out the top performers were the setters, Rudy Maynard and Grace Droste, the former leading the team with 21 assists (7.00 p/s) whereas the latter tallied a new benchmark at 16 (5.33 p/s) helpers.

• Wheaton (Illinois)

Droste was the lone student-athlete with a personal benchmark reached in the nightcap via her 2026-best seven digs (2.33 p/s) and fronted the Scots in assists (12, 4.00 p/s) with Grace Steiner topping Alma in the defense category (11 digs, 3.67 p/s). Nevea Bush put the best offensive numbers into the stat sheet thanks to eight kills (2.67 p/s) and Carling was responsible for a solid overall match of ten digs (3.33 p/s), six kills (2.00 p/s), and a pair of aces (0.67 p/s).
 
Next:
Alma begins a three-match homestand on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. versus Kuyper College.
 

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