Champaign, Ill. - The post-season path for the Illinois Central College volleyball team looks a little different this season. For the first time in six years, the #3-seeded Cougars (23-14) will be on the road competing in the District Tournament as they travel to Champaign on Saturday, November 8 to play St. Louis at 1pm in Dodds Gym. Despite not playing in Ramsey Gym, qualifying for the National Tournament is still the end goal.
Coach Tracy Heffren designed the regular season schedule so the Cougars would be battle-tested at this time of the year and it's safe to say she succeeded. Nearly half of ICC's matches (16 out of 37) have come against teams ranked in the Top 25, with a majority of them being either on the road or at neutral sites.
Sophomores have led the way for the Cougars---outside hitter
Andrea Rudolphi has 372 kills on the season while middle hitter
Bella Gregory has 261. Outside
Maggye Smith (182 kills) and middle
Jessi Rokey (158 kills) are other key cogs on the front line. Setting duties have been handled by
Allison de Freese (597) and
Ellie Dallas (585) while
Whitney Rumbold has anchored the defense with 557 digs on the year. Gregory has a team-leading 114 blocks.
St. Louis comes to Districts from Region 16 and owns an 11-27 overall record. If the Cougars defeat the Archers, they would likely have a rematch with Parkland in the championship. The Cobras, who rose to #1 in this week's poll have a 46-4 record. The Cougars took set 1 in the game in Champaign on October 1 but PC stormed back to win 3-1. Saturday's champion gets an automatic bid to Nationals on Nov. 19-22 in Cedar Rapids.
The other side of the District games, District A, will take place at Heartland with the host Hawks playing Danville at 11am and the 1pm game between Metropolitan (out of Missouri) and Lincoln Land. The champion of District A will also earn an automatic bid to Cedar Rapids.
"We will be ready this weekend," Heffren said, "and focus on having good ball control and controlling what we can control."
2025 CENTRAL DISTRICT B TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE - Saturday, Nov. 8 at Parkland College, Champaign, IL
11:00 PM | #2 Parkland College (46-4) vs. #7 Spoon River College (10-23)
1:00 PM | #6 St. Louis CC (11-27) vs. #3 Illinois Central College (23-14)
3:00 PM | Central District B Championship; Winner gets automatic bid to Nationals
***Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1gGrfy4uRLyKIysllHlcsQ/videos
2025 CENTRAL DISTRICT A TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE - Saturday, Nov. 8 at Heartland College, Normal, IL
11:00 PM | #1 Heartland vs. #8 Danville Area
1:00 PM | #5 Metropolitan vs. #4 Lincoln Land
3:00 PM | Central District A Championship
