CKSR (Volleyball Holds Off Trine in MIAA Tournament Semifinals - To Face Hope in Final Saturday)

CALVIN KNIGHT SPORTS REPORT FOR NOV. 7, 2014

Volleyball Holds Off Trine in MIAA Tournament Semifinals - To Face Hope in Final Saturday

VOLLEYBALL
Calvin 3, Trine 1

By Mark DeHaan

HOLLAND - The Knights met Trine University for the third time this season on Friday evening, traveling to Hope College's DeVos Fieldhouse to play the Thunder in a MIAA Tournament semi-final matchup.
Trine came ready to play and gave Calvin all it could handle, but in the end, the Knights showed their big game experience and defeated the Thunder 25-23, 21-25, 25-22, 25-23.

Despite being swept by Calvin (26-3) twice during the regular season, the Thunder (24-6) played the Knights tight in all six regular-season sets. In all four sets Friday night, it was much of the same as Trine held with Calvin throughout the match.

In the first set, the Knights led 7-4 early as five different Calvin players tallied kills in the opening points. The Knights then held the three point advantage until 16-13. Three straight by Trine knotted the game at 16-16, and moments later, the Thunder took the lead at 19-18, forcing a Calvin timeout.

The Knights responded, and on a kill by senior Stacey Kamp (Palos Heights IL/Chicago Christian HS), took the first set 25-23.

At the beginning of set two, Trine took a 7-6 lead. A four-point swing behind strong service from freshman Emily Blankespoor (Grand Rapids/South Christian HS) saw Calvin build a 10-7 advantage. The Thunder responded by slowly chipping away at the Knights lead, and with the score at 18-17 in favor of Calvin, Trine reeled off four straight points to force a Knights timeout as Calvin trailed 21-18. The break could not right the Calvin ship, though, and the Thunder claimed the second set 25-21.

Building on the momentum from the set two win, Trine came out strong in set three to take a 5-0 lead. Facing its largest deficit of the game thus far, Calvin answered with seven straight to take the lead. The remainder of set three was played like the first two as the teams fought back and forth. Tied 22-22,

Calvin forced a pair of Thunder errors and received a kill from senior Ellie Diepersloot (Madera, CA/Chowchilla HS) as the Knights earned a hard-fought set three 25-22.

In the fourth set, Trine again responded. The game was tied early at 7-7, but the Thunder began to pull away, beginning with a 4-0 run, to build an 11-7 lead. Trine's lead grew to as much as seven at 20-13, but strong defense brought the Knights back. Behind a strong serving run from Blankespoor, Calvin cut the deficit to 21-20. Points later, freshman Jenna Lodewyk (Villa Park, IL/Timothy Christian HS) had a service ace to tie the set at 23-23. After a Thunder timeout, kills from junior Maggie Kamp (Orland Park, IL/Chicago Christian HS) and sophomore Laura Danhoff (Willard, OH/Willard HS) then claimed an exciting comeback 25-23 win in set four and a 25-23, 21-25, 25-22, 25-23 four set win.

Calvin hit .203 for the match while Trine hit .165. The Knights totaled seven blocks, including three in the comeback fourth set. The Thunder had 11 service aces.

Trine was led by Carly Searles who had 39 assists, 24 digs, and eight kills. Taylor Rabel led the Thunder with 14 kills.

"(This match) was a dog fight. Calvin played extremely well and their experience showed in the fourth set when they were down. They have that experience in the big game and they stepped up," said Trine head coach Jamie Wozniak. "Tonight, everyone was dialed in, and we knew to have a chance, that we had to get them out of system. So we served them deep, focused on seams, then dropped it short just to keep them on their toes."

For the Knights, Maggie Kamp and Danhoff each tallied 15 kills. Kamp added 19 digs. Senior Elise Biesboer (Elmhurst, IL/Timothy Christian HS) led Calvin with 28 digs, while Lodewyk had 48 assists.

"It was an incredible defensive battle with a lot of long rallies. It was hard for us to get kills tonight because they dug everything up," said Calvin head coach Amber Warners. "I was happy to see that there was a different mentality at the net the last 15 points, and that's what we've been trying to get at a long time. When we were down, I thought our defense, in the back row as well as the front row, picked us up when we needed it."

Calvin advances to the MIAA Tournament Championship game against Hope which will be played on Saturday at DeVos Fieldhouse at 4 p.m. Hope defeated Alma 25-12, 25-9, 25-15 in the second semi-final.
Received on Fri Nov 7 22:32:46 2014