CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR OCT. 30, 2007
Women's Soccer Advances to MIAA Tournament Finals;
Volleyball Advances to MIAA Tournament Semis
WOMEN'S SOCCER
Calvin 5, Hope 1
(written by Bruce VanBaren '09)
Calvin's league best offense exploded as the Knights advanced to the MIAA
Tournament championship game for the second year in a row with a 5-1 semifinal
win over Hope College Tuesday afternoon. Calvin will host Albion who won 2-0
at Kalamazoo on Tuesday. The MIAA Tournament championship game will take place
on Saturday at noon at Calvin’s Zuidema Field.
Despite a perfect regular season and two conference tournament wins, the
Knights must still win the tournament championship game to secure the automatic
NCAA tournament bid as the title game is worth nine points and Calvin sits
eight points ahead of Albion in the league standings.
"We have to play this one right on out to the end," Coach Mark Recker said.
"We have this responsibility based on our first goal... to win the MIAA. The
additional pressure to win at the end of the season is bringing back our focus
[on that goal]."
The Knights didn't play as if they were under much pressure in the team's 5-1
semifinal win over Albion, especially not juniors Ashley Bolen (Urbana, IL/
Urbana), Michelle Koele (Denver, CO/ Denver Christian) and Elizabeth Ribbens
(Tinley Park, IL/ Victor J. Andrew) who combined for two goals and four assists
in the win.
"Without [the junior leadership], this team doesn't have the same outcome that
we've been able to generate this year especially coming off of last year's
season," Recker said. "Our challenge to the team when we started the season
was that we needed to create our own new culture of performance. It's really
your upper classman who dictate [that] culture. They did that today and they've
pretty much done that all year long."
And that culture has been a perfect 10-0-0 record with a league best 38
conference goals and only three conference goals against.
In this afternoon's win, Koele opened up the scoring in the 20th minute
heading a perfect cross from Bolen far post for her fourth goal of the season.
After a Bolen corner kick squirted out to Juliana Litts (Alexandria, VA/ Thomas
Jefferson), Litts found Bolen alone in the corner and Bolen sent a ball to the
head of Koele.
Ribbens put Calvin up 2-0 with a long shot from the right wing. The goal was
Ribbens' eighth of the season and sophomore Natalie Veurink was credited with
an assist on the play. Minutes later Ribbens found sophomore Emily Ottenhoff
(Palos Heights, IL/ Chicago Christian) with a centering pass. Ottenhoff
controlled the ball and then put it under diving Hope goal keeper Kelsey Bos to
put the Knights on top 3-0 at the half.
Hope answered minutes into the second half after a slicing shot from Hope
forward Julia Fischer got past Calvin goal keeper sophomore Kayla Sulzer (St.
Charles, MO/ Whitfield). Calvin answered immediately as a perfectly placed
Bolen corner kick found the head of Carly Prins (Hudsonville/ Hudsonville) to
put the Knights up 4-1. It was Prins' team high 11th goal of the season.
Just 20 seconds later Koele lofted a chip into the box and freshman Elaine
Schnabel (Chesteron, IN/ Chesterton) scored as Calvin finished with a 5-1 win.
Calvin will host Albion in the tournament championships game at noon on
Saturday. The Knights narrowly escaped with a 1-0 win at Albion just a week
ago.
"[To beat Albion] I think it's a matter of playing two halves of complete
soccer," Recker said.
In its 1-0 win at Albion, Calvin barely edged an 8-6 shots at goal advantage
in the first half, but dominated the second half of play with a 17-1 shots at
goal advantage as well as the only goal of the game.
"We played away last time; it’s hard to win away games in the MIAA,”
Recker said. “The benefit we had in terms of our season success is that it
gave us home games in the tournament. That's an advantage you earn in the
regular season and I think playing at home will help."
Saturday’s game with Albion will be aired via RealAudio broadcast through
the Calvin web site at: http://www.calvin.edu/sports/ram/calvinsports.ram
VOLLEYBALL
Calvin 3, Alma 0 (30-16, 30-11, 30-24)
The 16th-ranked Calvin women's volleyball team advanced to the MIAA Tournament
semifinals with a 30-16, 30-11, 30-24 victory over Alma College in a first
round MIAA Tournament match Tuesday night at the Calvin Fieldhouse.
The Knights (27-4) will host the semifinals on Friday and the finals on
Saturday. Friday's semifinals will pit Hope (23-8) up against Adrian (16-10) at
5:30 while Calvin will face Saint Mary's (13-17) at 7:30 p.m. in the second
semifinals. Friday's winners will then meet in the MIAA Tournament Championship
final on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
Tickets for Friday's semifinals and for Saturday's championship final will be
$5.00 for adults and $2.00 for students.
In its victory over Alma, Calvin was paced by senior Kristen Kalb (Stow, OH)
who amassed 18 kills and a blistering .519 attack percentage. Senior Molly
Krikke (Greenwich, OH) added 13 kills with sophomore Sara Kramer (Dyer, IN)
contributing 10 kills. Senior setter Katie Zondervan (Lakewood, CA) had 48
assists and 10 digs while junior Lauren DeGroot (Tulare, CA) had 17 digs.
Sophomore Kelsey Sears (Traverse City West HS) also had 18 digs.
Calvin will be meeting Saint Mary’s in the MIAA Tournament semifinals for
the second straight year. Calvin defeated Saint Mary’s in three games in last
year’s MIAA Tournament semifinals.
Calvin will be making its ninth consecutive appearance in the MIAA Tournament
semifinals. The Knights are now 20-3 all-time in the MIAA Tournament. The
Knights have won five of the previous eight MIAA Tournament titles including
the last three.
Friday’s match against Saint Mary’s will be aired via RealAudio broadcast
through the Calvin web site at:
http://www.calvin.edu/sports/ram/calvinsports.ram
OTHER MIAA FIRST ROUND MATCH SCORES TUESDAY NIGHT
Hope d. Kalamazoo 30-16, 30-13, 30-22
Adrian d. Albion 30-27, 30-28, 30-26
Saint Mary's d. Tri-State 30-19, 30-20, 31-29
Friday Semi-Finals at Calvin
Hope vs. Adrian, 5:30 p.m.
Calvin vs. Saint Mary's, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday's Championship at Calvin, 4 p.m.
Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Tue Oct 30 22:21:07 2007
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