NCAA III WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL * WITTENBERG HEADED BACK TO SALEM
Wittenberg 3, Calvin 0 (30-26, 30-19, 32-30)
GRAND RAPIDS, MI * The Wittenberg volleyball team brought its “A” game to the Calvin College Fieldhouse Friday night and now the Tigers are headed back to Salem, Virginia, for another trip to the Elite Eight of the NCAA III Volleyball Tournament.
Making its fifth consecutive appearance in a regional final, the 15th-ranked Tigers (34-7) upended 11th-ranked Calvin on the home floor of the Knights, winning by scores of 30-26, 30-19, 32-30. The Wittenberg victory snapped a 25-match win streak by Calvin (34-2) and avenged an early-season four-game loss to the Knights.
The regional title is the third in the last five years for Wittenberg.
Playing their third match in as many days, Wittenberg played its best volleyball of the regional tournament as the Tigers came out firing on all cylinders, stuffing Calvin at the net and finding holes in the Calvin defense.
In game one, Wittenberg jumped out to a 22-15 lead behind strong play from Brittany Stenbrecher and Jessica Kimble. Calvin was able to close to within three at 27-24 but Wittenberg scored three of the final five points to seal the win with Kimble picking up two of the final three points with sideline kills.
Game two was all Wittenberg as the Tigers built a 21-14 lead. Calvin got within six at 23-17 but the Tigers responded with a 7-2 run to take a 2-0 lead.
Game three proved to be more dramatic however as Wittenberg took a 19-12 lead, only to see Calvin mount one final surge, reeling off a 12-5 run to tie the game at 24. The Calvin run was fueled by four kills from junior middle Molly Krikke, three kills from senior middle Katy Luimes and a block by Luimes and senior Lorilyn Vogel, bringing the Calvin crowd of nearly 1,000 to its feet. A pair of Calvin errors and a service ace by Wittenberg’s Emily Bell put the Tigers up 27-24 but once again, Calvin mounted a rally behind kills from Luimes, freshman Sara Kramer and a block by Kramer and Luimes to tie the game at 27.
Calvin was never able to grab the lead however. The Knights were able to retie the game at 28, 29 and 30 but back-to-back kills by Bell closed out the game and the match.
“If we would have lost the third game, I’m not sure we would have won the match,” said Wittenberg head coach Paco Labrador in the post-match press conference. “Calvin was starting to figure out our weaknesses and their crowd made it very difficult for us to run our offense. So much of our offense is based on our setter making audible reads and when it got as loud as it did, we struggled to communicate. We were fortunate to pull a rabbit out our hats at the end and sneak out with the game three win.”
Calvin head coach Amber Warners was quick to point out the strong play of the Tigers. “I thought Wittenberg brought its ‘A’ game tonight and we did not,” said Warners. “If you don’t bring your best game to the floor when you reach the round of 16, it can be very difficult to win. I want to give a lot of credit to Wittenberg because they had us on our heels. We made a great comeback in game three. It was just a little too late.”
Wittenberg was led in the victory by Bell who picked up 12 kills and 10 digs. Jackie Williams also had 10 kills and a hitting percentage of .348. Kimble also had eight kills and six block assists while setters Sarah Matesich and Erin Slattery finished with 21 and 17 assists respectively.
Calvin was led in defeat by senior Krikke who had 17 kills and an attack percentage of .368 while senior Kristen Kalb added 14 digs and 13 kills. Junior setter Katie Zondervan also had 50 assists and 12 digs while Luimes had nine kills and two block assists.
In finishing 34-2, Calvin matched the third-best single-season total for victories in a season in school history.
Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Sat Nov 11 22:41:30 2006
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