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CALVIN KNIGHT SPORTS REPORT FOR NOV. 16, 2012

Volleyball Advances to National Final With Win Over Christopher Newport;
Basketball Teams Claim First Round Tournament Victories

VOLLEYBALL
Calvin 3, Christopher Newport 1
(Story by MIAA Publicist Greg
Chandler)

HOLLAND, Mich. – Playing in front
of a raucous, partisan crowd of 2,054, the Knights of Calvin (Mich.) College
punched their ticket to their second NCAA Division III volleyball championship
match in three years Friday night by defeating Christopher Newport (Va.),
25-19, 25-21, 23-25, 25-16, in a national semifinal match.

The Knights (33-2), who won their
first national championship in 2010 by defeating Emory (Ga.), will play the
University of St. Thomas (Minn.) for the Division III title at 7 p.m. Saturday
night
at Hope College’s DeVos Fieldhouse, 37 miles from the Calvin campus in Grand
Rapids. The Captains, who were the tournament’s top-seeded team, had its
32-match winning streak snapped and ended its season at 40-3.

Using a diversified attack led by
sisters Lizzie and Maggie Kamp, the Knights jumped on Christopher Newport
early, building a 19-12 lead in the first set. The Captains battled back to cut
the lead to 21-18, but back-to-back kills by Lizzie Kamp sealed the set.

Calvin, which won the Michigan Intercollegiate
Athletic Association championship, capitalized on a series of CNU attack errors
to build a 17-11 lead in the second set, The Captains, who won the USA
South championship, closed the gap to 19-18 on a Bailey Jensen kill, but could
not pull even as the Knights took a 2-sets-to-none lead.

“I was very happy with how
aggressive we served. I think it was probably one of the major differences in
the match,” Calvin coach Amber Warners said.

“I was very proud of the
intensity (we showed). We’ve talked all year about playing within each point –
not looking at the past and not relying on the future and thinking ahead. We
did that for the most part tonight.”

Christopher Newport showed its character in the third set, battling back from a
21-17 deficit to pull out the set. A tandem block by Cory Harris and Chastity
Lacy gave the Captains a 24-23 lead, and Christie Fellows’ kill extended the
match to a fourth set.

Leading 9-8 in the fourth set,
the Knights slowly began to pull away, as Lizzie Kamp, Megan Rietema and Emily
Crowe consistently found openings in the Christopher Newport defense. A tandem
block by Lizzie Kamp and Rebecca Ratkov closed out the match.

“Calvin is just an unbelievable
team,” Christopher Newport coach Lindsay Birch said. “They have some
unbelievable athletes, great size, (with a) great coach. We did a lot of good
things to get them out of system. I thought we served really great. Our
serve-receive,
we had to step up big time, and we did.”

The Knights hit over .300 in the
first and fourth sets, and finished with four players in double figures for
kills. Lizzie Kamp, who was named the national Division III Player of the Year
Wednesday, had 15 kills, as did Maggie Kamp. Rietema, a first team All-American
setter, added 11 kills, 40 assists and five blocks, while Crowe had 10 kills.
Jen Pluymert led Calvin with 17 digs.

Fellows led the Captains with 12
kills, while Jessie Kolden added 11. Alyssa Kidd dished out 40 assists, and
Abby Hogge had 28 digs.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

DECATUR, IL - In a rematch of last year’s NCAA
III quarterfinal contest, Calvin recorded a 78-72 victory over St. Thomas in a
first round game of the Millikin Coaches vs Cancer Tournament. Calvin entered
the game ranked #1 in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll while St. Thomas came in
ranked third.

Calvin jumped
out to a 42-26 halftime lead and later built a 48-30 advantage only to see St.
Thomas roar back to within a point inside the final five minutes. Calvin surged
ahead down the stretch however to pull away for the win. Senior Carissa Verkaik
had 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting. She is now just two points away from
becomingEngelhard also pumped in a career-high 21 points while senior Ally Wolffis had
10 points and senior Kelsey Irwin nine points.

Calvin will now
prepare for a 5 p.m. (EST) contest against seventh-ranked Wisconsin-Stevens
Point which will be a rematch of a second round NCAA III Tournament game from
last year.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

In the home opener of the 2012-13 season, the men’s basketball team defeated
Grace Bible College 84-53.

Calvin took a
38-30 halftime lead and extended it to 31 points by the end of the game.
The Knights won the rebounding battle 37-29 and shot 53.1% in the game.
All 13 active players logged minutes in the win.

Junior Tyler
Kruis (Grand Rapids/Calvin Christian) led the way for the Knights, scoring a
career-high 29 points on 13-16 shooting. Tyler Dykstra (Holland/Holland
Christian), Kruis’ partner in the frontcourt, played a great all-around game,
finishing with eight points, six rebounds, six assists, and two blocks.
Senior Bryan Powell (Wyoming/Wyoming Park) provided a spark off the bench with
12 points on 5-10 shooting.

“We played a
great all-around game as a team,” said Tyler Kruis. “Tomorrow we play a
talented North Park team so we will have to come ready to play right from the
tip.”

Calvin will play
North Park University tomorrow at 3 p.m. for the Tip-Off Tournament
championship. North Park defeated Cairn University 79-55 in the other
matchup on Friday.
Received on Sat Nov 17 00:04:44 2012