Lindenwood women’s volleyball (3-0) opened up their 2025 season at the Hampton Inn and Suites Seahawks Classic in Wilmington, North Carolina where they came away with three victories including their first ever win over a power conference opponent in the Virginia Tech Hokies.
Coming into 2025, Lindenwood volleyball faced lofty expectations after its most successful season of the Division I era. The Lions notched 23 wins, their highest total since 2011, when they won 27, and capped the year with the program’s first Ohio Valley Conference championship.
That historic run, however, came with turnover. Lindenwood graduated several key contributors from the 2024 title squad, including standouts Rebecca Janke, Nyah Wilson, Addy McAleer, Allie Otton and Jessie Seidel.
Head coach Will Condon, now in his ninth season at the helm, retooled with four freshmen and one transfer to bolster a strong returning core. The newcomers include middle blocker Blair Sitton (Farmington, Missouri), outside hitter Shannon Monahan (Champaign, Illinois), setter Greta Shadewald (Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin) and outside hitter Kylee Richey (Versailles, Missouri). The Lions also added defensive specialist Alayna Rudebeck, who transfers in from Parkland College after two seasons.
Those additions join a proven group of returners led by reigning OVC Freshman of the Year Autumn Bax. Also back are middle blockers Ashley Geluck and Jade Roth, outside hitter Anna Kraemer, and defensive specialists Dana Grib, Lexi Menne and Izzy Herrbold.
In their opening weekend of play Lindenwood took down UNCW 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-13), North Carolina Central 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-18) and came back to reverse sweep Virginia Tech 3-2 (17-25, 18-25, 25-19, 33-31, 15-7) to end the weekend. The win over Virginia Tech was Lindenwood’s first ever win over a power conference opponent from the SEC, Big 10, Big 12 or ACC.
The most thrilling set of the entire weekend occurred against the Hokies in set four with the Lions still down 2-1, Lindenwood was able to fend off five match points by the Hokies before riding miscues by Virginia Tech and big kills from Roth, Geluck, Bax and Monahan to grab a wild 33-31 set four win and take that momentum into set five dominating to the tune of a 15-7 closeout match win.
Bax was named Seahawks Classic MVP for her efforts in the three matches as she tallied 37 kills, four blocks and hit .275 over the weekend. Roth and Geluck were also honored with accolades as they were named to the All-Tournament team. Roth racked up 34 kills and nine blocks while hitting .353 while Geluck had 25 kills, 10 blocks, seven aces and hit .404.
Redshirt freshman Megan Donahue has massive shoes to fill at the setter position for Lindenwood taking over for longtime setter Allie Otton who was Lindenwood’s setter for the past five seasons.
Donahue lived up to the moment as her efforts in her first three career games donning a Lion uniform earned her OVC setter of the week and freshman of the week honorees as she tallied 108 assists over the weekend while also racking up 16 kills, 32 digs, seven blocks and a service ace. As a team the Lions hit .247 at the Seahawk Classic with Donahue as the anchor.
Donahue also recorded two double-doubles including in her first ever match against UNCW where she had 38 assists and 16 digs and in the finale against Virginia Tech when she dished out 41 assists and had 11 digs.
Shonahan and Richey also appeared in their first matches for Lindenwood as Shonahan started all three games and Richey started in two of the three. Shonahan tallied 23 kills and two service aces while hitting .056 while Richey had 19 kills, four blocks and a service ace.
Grib and Rudebeck anchored the Lions defense as the pair combined for 64 digs, 22 assists and four service aces.
Lindenwood women’s volleyball will be back in action next weekend as they travel down to Springfield, Missouri to take part in the Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational where they will take on the Missouri State Bears on Thursday, Sept. 4 at 6:00 p.m., DePaul University on Friday, Sept. 5 at 4:00 p.m., and the University of Texas San-Antonio (UTSA) on Saturday, Sept. 6 at noon.
All games can be heard on 89.1 The Wood radio station or can be listened to here: https://streamdb3web.securenetsystems.net/cirrusencore/index.cfm?stationcallsign=KCLC
