After three nights of conference play, Newton and Marshall have found their way to the top of the Little Illini Conference volleyball race.

Newton had perhaps the biggest early-season test to date, defeating Lawrenceville on Thursday in a battle of league unbeatens. That was one of three conference matchups, to go along with two non-conference tilts. So, everybody played.

Here’s what happened (x-denotes conference games):
x-Newton 2, Lawrenceville 1
x-Casey-Westfield 2, Mt. Carmel 1
x-Marshall 2, Robinson 0
Edwards County 2, Olney 1
Paris 2, Oblong 1

Newton (2-0 in LIC, 18-2 overall), ranked third in the latest Massey ratings (Class 3A), won the first game against the Lady Indians, 25-17. Lawrenceville (2-1, 17-5) bounced back to square the match with a hard fought 26-24 victory. Newton won the rubber game, 25-17.

Layla Thomann finished game-high in kills, leading Newton with 11. Ella Waggoner topped Lawrenceville with eight. Newton also added Allie Hermann to the stat line with 13 digs, as well as Claire Probst with four blocks at the net. The Indians countered with Macy Root’s 11 digs and Bria Waggoner’s three blocks.

Casey-Westfield (2-1, 14-5) dropped the first set at home to Mt. Carmel (1-2, 5-11), 25-12. The Lady Warriors regrouped to win the next two sets, 25-18, 25-22, and the match against the defending co-champions.

Marshall (2-0, 25-6) kept paces with Newton with a 2-0 LIC win over Robinson (0-2, 11-7). The Lady Lions won the sets by 25-21 and 25-20 counts.

Marshall dominated at the service line, with 12 aces to Robinson’s four. Harper Richardson had seven for the winners. to go with 10 kills and 10 digs. Leading the way for Robinson was Eva Brashear with seven kills, Macee Hammond with nine digs, and Grace Miller with three service aces.

In non-conference action on Thursday, Olney (6-11) fell to Edwards County (12-9), 2-1, while Paris (15-6) defeated Oblong (10-11), 2-1.