Keck reaches career milestone as Raiders close sweep of Chargers with emphatic burst

QUINCY — Kourtney Keck wasn’t aware how close she was to a career milestone until the public address announcer mentioned it prior to announcing the lineups for Thursday night’s volleyball match at The Pit.

“I had no idea,” the Quincy Notre Dame senior libero said.

She needed only two digs to reach 500 for her career, something she accomplished in the first set of the Raiders’ 25-14, 25-15 victory over Illini West.

“I’ve worked really hard for this,” Keck said. “My family supports me and they encourage me along the way. They help me to work harder and set those standards for myself.”

Those standards, for herself and the Raiders, are quite high.

QND is 22-2 overall and has developed a killer instinct as evidenced by the fact the Raiders scored 12 of the final 14 points of the second set to finish the sweep. 

“It’s our energy,” Keck said. “We were having a lot of fun and everything was kind of clicking. That definitely helped. That energy always helps.”

QND coach Danielle White echoed that thought.

“We’re seeing that repetitively with the energy the girls are bringing,” she said. “We play our best when we’re having fun, having energy, but they also know when it’s time to put the look on their face that we’re here and mean business. They have a great balance.”

Their attention to detail and willingness to make adjustments has helped, too.

“Knowing our passing could be better and we can run different hitters made a difference in that second set,” QND senior middle hitter Madalyn Boyer said. “That’s when we started going on a run. We have a lot of options and things are coming together nicely.”

In fact, four different players — Boyer, Nora Wiley, Eva Beckenkamp and Tristan Pieper — had kills during that closing run.

“We’re continuing to focus on the mentality that we all have to buy in to what we’re trying to sell,” White said. “Every single time, even if you’re getting the set or not, you’re off the ground and selling that approach so then the block will be deceived.”