Looking Back at the 2025 Volleyball Season

CARLINVILLE, IL – Blackburn College Athletics will look back at the 2025-26 season throughout the month of June. Today, we look at the 2025 volleyball season.

The 2025 squad highlighted the season with their sixth straight St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament appearance and tied a school record in wins on their strong defense as they led the league in digs and saw three players earn SLIAC Defensive Player of the Year honors.

Freshman Rylea Black was named the SLIAC Volleyball Freshman of the Year with junior Kenadee Frey earning Second Team All-SLIAC honors. Frey also set new school records throughout the year.

A middle, Black was the first Freshman of the Year recipient in program history. She finished her rookie campaign with 173 kills while hitting at a .271 clip throughout the season. Her .271 hitting percentage placed her fourth in the league. She added 63 blocks, with 20 solo blocks. Those 63 blocks saw her finish eighth overall in the SLIAC. She finished the year with seven matches she achieved double-figure kills, posting a career- high 13 against Mississippi University for Women. She achieved a career high 10 blocks in a 3-2 victory over Lyon College that helped seal the team's playoff appearance. She arrived on the scene early as she earned SLIAC Defensive Player of the Week honors in September after posting 11 total blocks for the week.

Frey set new school records with 1,720, career assists, 144 career aces, and is currently third all-time in digs with 940. She finished the 2025 season with 692 assists, 50 aces and a career high of 352 digs. She also added a career high 21 blocks and 68 kills. She notched at least 20 assists 19 times and achieved over 30 assists nine times. She had a season best 44 in two matches. The junior tallied 28 digs in the playoff-sealing win over Lyon for a career-high. She earned Second Team All-SLIAC honors and finished fourth in assists and sixth in digs and aces. During the season, she received SLIAC Defensive Player of the Week. She continued her accolades by being named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team, an honor that requires student-athletes to stand out not just as an athlete but also must have at least a 3.5 grade point average.

Freshman Elexus Frey also earned conference recognition early in the year with a Defensive Player of the Week selection after helping the Beavers to a 3-0 record, posting 54 digs.

Sophomore Rean Ward led the offensive attack with 214 kills while senior Ella Person added 179 kills. Black posted 173 with senior Zoe Mitchell notching 152 and senior Payton Moeglin had 124. Defensively, E. Frey finished with 442 digs and K. Frey had 352. Moeglin chipped in with 269 and freshman Marissa Perez tallied 214 digs. Mitchell led the defense at the net with 74 blocks. 

Frey led all servers with 50 aces with Moelin posting 37 and E. Frey adding 30. Mitchell notched 20 with Perez contributing 19. 

The 2025 season opened 3-1 with victories over Miami University Hamilton, Spurgeon College and Beloit College. They then defeated Harris Stowe State University and Know College to cap off their nonconference victories. In SLIAC play, the Beavers defeated Webster 3-2 in their first conference tri-match then defeated Spalding University and Eureka College in their second tri-match.

After falling to conference leaders Westminster College and Greenville College, BC returned to take down Webster and Spalding again. The team opened November with a 3-2 victory over Lyon that guaranteed their postseason appearance. They then added a win over Eureka for their last victory of the season.

The Beavers were forced to take the long bus ride down to Mississippi to take on MUW in the playoffs but ultimately fell to the Owls.

On the season, the team won three more conference games than the year before and saw improvements in kills, blocks, aces and digs.