CKSR (Men's Basketball Defeats Anderson/Women's Basketball Falls to Hope/Volleyball Players Receive All-America Honors)

CALVIN KNIGHT SPORTS REPORT FOR NOV. 19, 2013

Men's Basketball Opens Season With 72-58 Win Over Anderson;
Women's Basketball Falls to Hope 88-81 in MIAA Opener;
Calvin Volleyball Players Receive All-America Honors

MEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 72, Anderson 58
By Mark DeHaan

The Calvin men's basketball team got off to a strong, balanced start in its season opener on Tuesday evening. Traveling down to Anderson University, the Knights claimed a 72-58 victory at the Ravens' O.C. Lewis Gymnasium by leading from start to finish.

Calvin jumped out to an 8-0 lead on baskets from four different players. The Knights continued to share the ball evenly and held a 15-11 lead with 10:12 remaining, with seven different players scoring the Knights' seven field goals.

Calvin finished off the first half on a 21-9 run over the remaining 10 minutes, taking a 36-20 lead into halftime. Senior Mickey DeVries had seven points and eight rebounds at the break to lead the Knights.
Calvin out-rebounded the Ravens 21-7 in the first half.

The Knights continued to dominate on the boards in the second half as their first field goal of the second period of play came off of an offensive rebound.

A pair of free throws and a baseline jam by senior Tyler Kruis then gave Calvin a 19 point lead with 17:39 remaining.

The Knights saw their largest lead of the game with 5:26 left as junior T.J. Huizenga stole a pass and then finished with a layup on the fast break for a 69-46 advantage.

Trying to get back into the game, Anderson shot mostly threes for the remainder of the game and whittled the Calvin lead to 14 at 72-58 before the clock read all zeroes.

The Knights claimed a 40-21 rebounding advantage by the end of the game. Junior Jordan Brink led the Calvin offense with 14 points while Kruis added 13 points and eight rebounds and DeVries a double-double with 11 points and 10 boards. Huizenga contributed eight points and three steals off the bench.
Anderson's Max Mollaun led all scorers with 20 points, and was 8-of-12 from the field. No other Raven reached double figures.

"We knew coming in that our front court would be a strength - returning Kruis, Dykstra, and DeVries," said head coach Kevin VandeStreek. "In the back court, we had just Brink coming back who had played significant minutes. Jordan hadn't played since the tournament because he was recovering from injury, but he did a good job, shaking off the rust. There was going to be a curve playing (sophomores) Jordan Daley and Austin Parks at the point as well, but I thought they did a good job tonight."

Calvin is now 1-0 while Anderson falls to 0-3. The Knights return to action on Friday evening when they host the Calvin Tip-off Tournament, facing Kuyper College at 7:30 p.m.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Hope 88, Calvin 81

In a rare early-season meeting of conference rivals, Hope recorded an 88-81 victory over Calvin Tuesday night at Van Noord Arena in the MIAA opener for both teams.

Using a new up-tempo offensive and a full-court pressure defense, Calvin raced out to an 18-3 lead, connecting on eight of its first 10 field goal attempts including three-pointers by juniors Kayla Engelhard (Unionville/Saginaw Valley Lutheran HS) and Maria DeKuiper (Bradenton, FL/Bradenton Christian HS).

Hope eventually whittled the Calvin lead down to 35-29 at halftime, using a 20-8 run over the final eight minutes of the first half to creep to within striking distance.

Hope (3-0 overall, 1-0 MIAA) took its first lead of the game at 39-38 early in the second half and never trailed again. Calvin (1-1 overall, 0-1 MIAA) remained in contact with the Flying Dutch never trailing by more than 10 and closing to within four on two separate occasions inside the final minute of play before Hope closed out hte game with a series of free throws.

Calvin's 81 points were the most scored against Hope since an 82-44 win in 1996. The 88-81 final score marked the most combined points scored by the two teams in a game in the rivalry's history.

"We're playing a different style of basketball this year," said Calvin women's basketball coach John Ross. "We are doing that to fit the talent that we have on our team. I know in my 11 years of coaching we have never scored more than 80 points against Hope so I am pleased with our effort. We just got a little tired and we are still getting used to our new system."

Calvin was led in scoring by DeKuiper who scored a career-high 16 points on 6-for-6 shooting including 3-for-3 from three-point range. Junior Breanna Verkaik (Holland/Holland Christian HS) had 15 points aznd six boards while Engelhard had 13 points and eight assists against just one turnover. Senior Kirstin Tripp (Brighton/Brighton HS) added 11 points and four assits while junior Hannah Acre (DeWitt/DeWitt HS) chipped in with eight points and five rebounds.

Calvin finished with 21 assists against 15 turnovers. Rebounding proved to be a pivotal factor as Hope outboarded Calvin 54-36 including 27-11 on the offensive glass. In the second half, Hope outrebounded the Knights 32-8.

"Rebounding was definitely a key," said Ross. "We don't have a ton of great rebounders on our team so we will have to get rebounds collectively. Hope is also a big and physical team and they really wore us down inside in the second half."

Calvin will now prepare for a weekend tournament hosted by Baldwin-Wallace College. Calvin will face Ohio Weslan at 8 p.m. with Defiance and Baldwin-Wallace meeting at 6 p.m.

VOLLEYBALL

Senior Megan Rietema and sophomore Maggie Kamp have been named first team Division III All-Americans by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. In addition, junior Emily Crowe had been named a third team Division III All-American by the AVCA. The awards were announced this afternoon. All three players will be honored at an awards banquet Wednesday night in Holland on the campus of Hope College.

A native of Grand Rapids and a graduate of Grand Rapids Christian High School, Rietema is receiving first team All-America honors for the third straight year. She is averaging 9.77 assists and 2.55 digs-per-set from her setter's position. She is also averaging 0.64 blocks-per-set and has 21 services aces on the year along with an attack percentage of .341. Rietema was named the Most Outstanding Player of the regional tournament hosted by Calvin last weekend, doing so for the second straight year. She was also named the MIAA's Most Valuable Player and to the All-MIAA first team. During the year, she was selected to the all-tournament team of the Wittenberg Fall Classic as well as to the Puget Sound Premier Invitational.
A native of Orland Park, Illinois, and a graduate of Chicago Christian High School, Kamp is receiving AVCA All-American for the first time. This fall, she has posted a hitting percentage of .318 while averaging 4.11 kills-per-set. She also averages 2.34 digs-per-set and has racked up 29 service aces and 64 blocks on the season. Last weekend, she was named to the all-tournament team of the NCAA III regional hosted by Calvin. Earlier this month, she landed a spot on the All-MIAA first team. She was a three-time MIAA Player of the Week selection during the season and was named to the University of Puget Sound Premier Invitational all-tournament team Labor Day weekend.
Crowe is also receiving AVCA All-America accolades for the first time. A native of Granger, Indiana, Crowe is a graduate of Mishawaka Penn High School. A middle-blocker, Crowe carries an attack percentage of .311 and is averaging 2.03 kills and 1.01 blocks-per-set. In Calvin's three NCAA III Tournament matches last week, she carried an attack percentage of 3.62 and averaged 2.0 kills-per-set

At 32-1, Calvin is headed into national tournament play Thursday night when it faces the University of Massachusetts-Boston at 3 p.m. at Hope's DeVos Fieldhouse in a national quarterfinal match. Calvin will enter the match ranked number-one in the country.
Received on Tue Nov 19 23:20:29 2013