The Monmouth College volleyball team rallied to knock off Elmhurst in four sets on Saturday night with a 15-25, 25-19, 25-16, 25-16 victory. The Fighting Scots (5-9) won at Elmhurst for the first time ever and moved to 3-1 in true road games this season.

"Tonight was a huge win for us and came against a really good team," said head coach Hope Neargarder. "We played our game together and I'm very proud of how we just kept going and never gave up."

The Bluejays jumped out to a 2-0 lead to start the match before the Scots took the lead on the serve of Bailey Hill (East Alton, Illinois). Alana Robertson (Mapleton, Illinois) picked up a kill and added an ace but Elmhurst won seven straight points to lead 15-7, Kaylee Celus (Annawan, Illinois) had two straight kills for the Scots and added another one but the deficit grew to 11. Down 23-14, Robertson and Lauren Aldrich (Wauconda, Illinois) had kills but Elmhurst finished the set at 25-15. 

Melina Teunis (Grand Haven, Michigan) and Celus shared a block early in the second set and Chloe Strachan (Reynolds, Illinois) added a kill. Celus put the Scots up 4-3 with a kill and a block by Strachan and Robertson made it 5-3. Strachan posted a solo block before Celus and Robertson shared one as the Scots scored three straight points on blocks. After another Strachan kill, Celus served up two aces and added a kill for a 12-5 lead. With Zoe Nizzia (Pekin, Illinois) serving, the Scots won seven straight points to go on top 19-6. Aldrich had three kills in that run while Robertson had one and Nizzia added an ace. Two kills each by Aldrich and Celus plus an ace by Brynn Hogan (Galena, Missouri) put the Scots up 24-9. Closing out the set proved challenging though as Elmhurst won 10 straight points and the Scots used both timeouts. Finally, on set point #12, Celus slammed home a kill for a 25-19 set win. 

Teunis and Celus had kills early in the third set but the Scots trailed 7-4. Aldrich got a sideout with a kill on two occasions as the teams traded points. A block by Teunis and Celus tied the set 9-9 and an ace by Leah Allan (Oconto, Wisconsin) put Monmouth on top.  Hogan added a kill and added two aces during a 5-0 run for a 17-10 lead. Celus, Robertson and Strachan had kills and Monmouth pushed the lead to 23-14 on a kill by Aldrich. Robertson's ace gave Monmouth a set point and after two points by the Bluejays, Aldrich finished the set with a kill and a 25-16 win. 

Celus started the fourth set with a kill and Hill added an ace. Kills by Strachan, Robertson and Aldrich put Monmouth up 7-5. Elmhurst regained the lead at 9-8 and pushed the lead to 12-9. Celus started a 7-0 Monmouth run with a kill while Strachan added two and Robertson had one. Nizzia served an ace for a 19-14 lead and Robertson added a kill to make it 22-15. Aldrich delivered a kill for match point and Elmhurst hit a serve out of bounds to end the match. 

Celus led the Scots with 14 kills and three blocks while Aldrich had 12 kills. Hill led Monmouth with 18 assists, one more than Robertson. Hogan had three aces and Nizzia led the way with 20 digs. 

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: After hitting under .050 in the first set, Monmouth hit .263, .321 and .370 in the final three sets to finish at .248…Aldrich hit .524 for the match and Robertson was at .467…Monmouth had 11 aces from six different players…Celus has at least 11 kills in five straight matches…She also has at least two aces in eight matches this season…Aldrich had a season-high 12 kills…Hogan tied her season and career high with three aces…Nizzia has at least 20 digs in four of the last five matches…The Scots are 1-3 all-time against Elmhurst…The Scots are next in action at home on Thursday with a 5:30 p.m. start against Central…Monmouth starts conference play on Friday with a 7 p.m. home match against Cornell.