WESTVILLE — The girls volleyball team placed second out of five teams at the Westville Invitational on Saturday, losing only one match for the day.

The Illineks went 3-1, just as they did last season at this tournament.

Now their record stands at 8-5 overall, 2-0 in the East Central Illinois Conference. They are ahead of last year's record-breaking pace, when the team was 7-5 and 2-2 en route to a school-record 20 wins.

On Saturday, the girls had great team and individual play, showing a big improvement from the Eagle Classic tournament a week earlier, when the team went 2-3 and finished seventh out of eight teams.

Uni's statistical leaders for the Westville Invite were as follows:

• Kills
  — Rachel Skoza 36
  — Rachel Harmon 18
  — Jessi Sullivan 10
  —Sheri Grill 7
  — Tuli Bera 6
  — Chumin Gao 6
  —Michelle Wong 5

• Assists
  — Michelle Wong 36
  — Sheri Grill 19

• Blocks
  — Rachel Harmon 5
  — Rachel Skoza 3
  — Jessi Sullivan 3
  — Chumin Gao 1

• Digs
  — Annie Machesky 40
  — Michelle Wong 25
  — Tuli Bera 26
  — Chumin Gao 15
  — Sheri Grill 7
  — Rachel Skoza 7
  — Jessi Sullivan 5
  — Jasmine Alvarado 2

• Service aces
  — Rachel Skoza 10
  — Annie Machesky 6
  — Sheri Grill 4
  — Michelle Wong 4
  — Tuli Bera 2
  — Jessi Sullivan 2

Senior Rachel Skoza broke Uni's career blocking record at the tournament. The record was previously held by Sara Medendorp, Class of 1999, with 90 career blocks. Skoza now has 93, with more than half the season to go.

For the first two matches of the day, seniors Jessi Sullivan and Jasmine Alvarado were absent for the ACT. Even without them, the Illineks pulled through with victories.

In the team's first match, against host Westville, Uni won in three games: 25-9, 21-25, 15-10. This match showed the Illineks' perseverance and started out the day well for them.

Following that came victories over Georgetown-Ridge Farm (25-8, 25-9) and Heritage (25-23, 21-25, 15-11).

Although the team was glad to have Sullivan back for the afternoon matches, the girls still lost their final match, the championship, to Salt Fork in two games: 13-25, 13-25.

But this didn't dampen the good feelings from earlier in the day.

"The girls turned in a solid all-around performance, managing to pull out tight games," commented head coach Amanda Palla. "Each and every player stepped up to play consistent volleyball."

One of the main problems the team has been having is missing serves, but this was not a problem at all during this tournament. Although they actually got second place, the Illineks definitely felt like first-place winners.

"We were surprised by how well we performed against tougher teams," said Sullivan.

The Illineks' next match will take place Tuesday against Normal Calvary Baptist in Normal.