East Peoria, Ill. - A sign of the volleyball season being upon us, the current ICC Volleyball team and its alumni gathered inside Ramsey Gym on Saturday afternoon for the program's annual Alumni Scrimmages. 

The turnout of former Cougars was quite impressive - plenty of former coaches and players took the court. In fact, so much so, it surprised Coach Tracy Heffren to a degree.

"We sent something out that said 'let us know if you're coming', and we didn't get a whole lot. I was very happy when I saw that we could make three teams of alumni. That was awesome."

The setup after lining up the aforementioned alumni pit those three groups and the 2023 Cougars as teams. The current team would face off against each alumni team for two sets, ultimately giving the current squad just one set more than a typical five-set match. 

That being said, it wasn't exactly easy. A majority of the alums were quite recent - take Hannah Alvey & Gracie Schultz for example, who are now both at NCAA D2 Lewis University. Mary O'Brien played at NCAA D1 Missouri State University. That's just scratching the surface of those that the 2023 Cougars had to go up against. Those players had Coach Heffren knowing her team was going to get a workout in.

"When I saw who showed up today, I knew it was going to be a battle. They're going to be smart players."

Smart players they were, indeed. Now, for the alumni players counting at home or wherever they may be, they did 'win', but it's a competition opportunity that Coach Heffren says the team shouldn't take for granted.

"We just said that we have things that we can learn from this. We did some things well - definitely can work on a few pieces here and there. I feel like ending on a positive note for them. We didn't lose to bad (alumni) teams. We're learning."

The Cougars have a couple more days before wrapping up their preseason with one final exhibition match. They'll head up to Joliet to take on the NAIA member Saint Francis University. The Saints were (19-18) last fall and fell in the opening round of the CCAC Tournament. First serve is set for 6PM on Wednesday, August 16th, from the Pat Sullivan Center. It does not appear the match will be streamed, but in the event that changes, fans can be assured they will be informed of said change. 

FULL LIST OF ALUMNI PLAYERS IN ATTENDANCE:
Hannah Alvey
Lacy Pilgrim
Hope Allen
Gracie Schultz
Ashley Urbanski
Jasmine Nickerson
Paige Sauder
Courtney Heffren
Alivia West
Halle Sheley
Kalli Terrel
Devin Lambert
Ellie Graham 
Brooke Hammer
Mary O'Brien
Halle Peterson
Jess Norris
Paloma Sajevic
Samantha Sopko
Quincy Thompson
Taylor Shirley
Jodie Sauder
Tracy Heffren

ALUMNI COACHES:
Sue Sinclair
Trish Guinee
Tracy Reach