CALVIN KNIGHT WEEKEND SPORTS WRAP FOR NOVEMBER 24, 2013
Men's Basketball Captures Calvin Tip-off Tourney Title;
Women's Basketball Falls in B-W Invite Title Game;
National Championship Volleyball Wrap-Up
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 97, College of Faith 81
By Mark DeHaan
The Calvin men's basketball team faced the College of Faith Warriors in the 13th annual Calvin Tip-off Tournament Championship on Saturday afternoon.
Calvin defeated Kuyper College 105-86 on Friday evening while College of Faith beat Grace Bible 86-81 to both advance to the championship.
The Knights entered the game at 2-0 while the Warriors were 3-2.
The teams played the beginning of the first half very closely. College of Faith opened the game applying the full-court press and took a 21-15 lead with 11:26 remaining by forcing four early Calvin turnovers.
The Knights recovered and picked up their shooting midway through the first half from where they left off last night. Calvin shot 60.3% in its victory over Kuyper on Friday, and in the first half, the Knights again hit over 50% of their shots.
The game was tied at 24-24 with 9:51 remaining, but after that, Calvin outscored the Warriors 28-14 the remainder of the half to claim a 52-38 lead at halftime.
Junior Jordan Brink (Dyer, IN/Illiana Christian HS) led the Knights with 15 points at the break while senior Mickey DeVries (Lansing/Lansing Christian HS) added 11 points and five rebounds. Calvin shot 58.6% in the opening half while outscoring College of Faith 14-2 in the points-off-turnover category.
Out of the break, Calvin took a 61-44 lead on a three-pointer from sophomore Austin Parks (Niles/Niles HS).
The Warriors cut the Knights lead to single digits with 9:14 remaining in the game at 74-65, scoring seven straight.
Calvin responded with a 10-0 run to push its lead to 84-65, the Knights largest lead of the game up to that point.
Calvin closed out the game with a 97-81 victory.
Brink led the Knights with 17 points while DeVries had 15 points and eight rebounds. Senior Tyler Kruis (Grand Rapids/Calvin Christian HS) and junior Tyler Dykstra (Holland/Holland Christian HS) were also both in double figures at 15 points and 10 points, respectively.
Calvin shot 54.1% from the field, including 9-of-20 from behind the arc. The Knights also hit 22-of-25 free throws.
Both DeVries and Brink were named to the all-tournament team while DeVries was named tournament MVP.
"We gave up about the same number of points as yesterday, and scored a little bit less, but yet we had a way better feeling. We came out of the gate and played much harder," said head coach Kevin VandeStreek. "They were really athletic and they had some plays that we couldn't do anything about, but the consistency factor was certainly in our favor. We did a nice job in transition and from an offensive standpoint, we got some pretty good looks."
Calvin continues non-conference action on Tuesday when it travels to Manchester to face the Spartans at 8 p.m.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Baldwin-Wallace 80, Calvin 62
BEREA, OH - For one half of play, the Calvin womens' basketball team stood toe-to-toe with the Yellow Jackets of Baldwin-Wallace. The second half proved to be a different story however as Baldwin-Wallace limited Calvin to just 20 second half points - en-route to an 80-62 victory in the championship game of the Baldwin-Wallace Invitational.
Calvin (2-2) led 42-41 at halftime, shooting 51.6 percent from the floor but shot just 27.6 percent from the floor in the second half while the Yellow Jackets (4-1) were able to move ahead by connecting on 10-of-14 free throw attempts over the final 20 minutes of play.
Junior Maria DeKuiper (Bradenton, FL/Bradenton Christian HS) led Calvin with a career-high 18 points while junior Abby VanderWoude (Hudsonville/Unity Christian HS) had 10 points and seven rebounds. Junior Kayla Engelhard (Unionville/Saginaw Valley Lutheran HS) added 10 points and four assists.
At the conclusion of the tournament, Engelhard and junior forward Hannah Acre (DeWitt/DeWitt HS) were both named to the all-tournament team.
Calvin is back in action on Tuesday, traveling to Manchester for a 6 p.m, game.
VOLLEYBALL
On Saturday night, the Calvin women's volleyball team captured its second national championship in the last four years, defeating Cal-Lutheran in 20-25, 12-25, 25-22, 25-17, 20-18 in the national final in Holland, Michigan.
The victory was a turnabout for Calvin in the fact that the Knights had held a 2-0 lead in sets just one year before in the national final against St. Thomas, only to see the Tommies roar back and win three consecutive sets and claim the crown.
In 93 all-time combined NCAA Division I, II and III volleyball national tournaments prior to the St. Thomas comeback last year, just four teams trailed 2-0 in sets in the championship match and came back to capture the crown. St. Thomas and Concordia-St. Paul (D-II) proceeded to both last year and now Calvin has achieved the feat. Combined, that's only seven in 97 all-time championship matches.
A wealth of championship coverage is currently online. Below are links to catching up on Calvin's championship run:
POST MATCH PRESS CONFERENCE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq4_b1dgpXM&feature=youtu.be
PHOTO GALLERY: http://www.calvin.edu/gallery/National-Final-13
HOLLAND SENTINEL COVERAGE: http://www.hollandsentinel.com/article/20131123/SPORTS/131129567
MLIVE.COM COVERAGE: http://www.mlive.com/smallcolleges/grandrapids/index.ssf/2013/11/calvin_college_claims_national.html#incart_river_default
CALVIN CHIMES COVERAGE: http://www.calvin.edu/chimes/2013/11/24/major-comeback-wins-calvins-second-volleyball-national-title-in-four-seasons/
NCAA.com Video Recap: http://www.ncaa.com/video/volleyball-women/2013-11-23/diii-womens-volleyball-2013-final-calvin-callutheran-recap
NCAA.com Match Story: http://www.ncaa.com/news/volleyball-women/article/2013-11-24/knights-earn-their-crown
NCAA.com Story on LIZZIE KAMP: http://www.ncaa.com/news/volleyball-women/article/2013-11-24/kamp-fire
AMBER WARNERS AUDIO INTERVIEW: http://www.calvin.edu/sports/audio/2014/vball13/AmberWarnersNationalFinals.mp3
KRISTEN ZIETSE AUDIO INTERVIEW: http://www.calvin.edu/sports/audio/2014/vball13/KristenZietseNationalFinals.mp3
MEGAN RIETEMA AUDIO INTERVIEW: http://www.calvin.edu/sports/audio/2014/vball13/MeganRietemaNationalFinals.mp3
Received on Sun Nov 24 22:07:51 2013
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