Little Rock moves into tie for second with five-set win over Western Illinois

For the second time in four days, Little Rock was pushed to five sets after taking a commanding lead. This time, the Trojans closed the deal, thwarting Western Illinois' attempt at a reverse sweep by winning the fifth and final set Friday night at the Jack Stephens Center. The win was crucial for Little Rock (15-11 overall, 10-3 OVC) in more ways than one, as the Trojans not only increased their lead over WIU to 1.5 games, but pulled into a tie for second-place with Lindenwood.
 
Little Rock got its first-ever win over Western Illinois (14-9, 8-4) and reached 15 wins for the first time since 2018 while also hitting double-digit conference victories for the first time since the same 2018 campaign. The Trojans stormed out to wins of 25-8 and 25-22 in the first two sets, fell flat in 13-25 and 18-25 losses to force a fifth set, then took care of business in the fifth, 15-11.
 
Bella Cherry led Little Rock with 17 kills while hitting .300 for the game, while Kaila Harris notched her fifth double-double with 15 kills and 19 assists. Jeila Fullerton (15 kills, 15 digs) recorded her team-high 15^th double-double, Andrea Roman tied a career-high with 32 digs, and Dariana Valencia posted her 13^th double-double with 28 assists and 20 digs. Kaylee Smith also added 25 digs.
 
Little Rock scored the first six points of the game, stretched that lead to 14-4 and eventually went ahead by a 21-6 count before Harris closed out the set with a kill. Fullerton had five kills in the set while Little Rock outhit the Leathernecks 17-5 in the opening set. WIU would hit in the negative until the third set.
 
The second set was much closer, tied at 5-5 and again at 10-10 before WIU ripped off five straight points for a 15-10 lead. After a timeout, Little Rock responded with a six-point run to go in front 16-15, a lead it would never surrender in the set. Fullerton finished with six kills in the frame.
 
The third set was close early at 5-5, but the Leathernecks opened up leads of 14-8, 22-10 and won 25-13 behind .444 hitting. It was much of the same in the fourth as Little Rock hit just .043 in the set. In the fifth set, the Trojans opened a 9-4 lead, increasing it to 12-4 before the Leathernecks took a timeout. Out of the break, WIU closed the gap to 14-11 but Cherry shut the door with her 17^th and final kill.
 
The two teams meet again tomorrow at 2 pm to close out the season series.