CALVIN KNIGHT SPORTS REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 21, 2014
Volleyball Advances to National Semifinals With Win Over Christopher Newport;
Basketball Teams Claim Tournament Victories
VOLLEYBALL
Calvin 3, Christopher Newport 1
NEWPORT NEWS, VA - For the third consecutive year and for the seventh time in school history, the Calvin women's volleyball team is headed to the national semifinals of the NCAA III Tournament.
The top-ranked Knights advanced to the semis with a 25-21, 25-15, 22-25, 25-16 victory over ninth-ranked and host Christopher Newport University Friday night inside the Christopher Newport Freeman Center.
Calvin (31-3) will face rival Hope (32-2) in the national semifinals Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Freeman Center. The winner of the match will play in the national championship final Monday afternoon at 1 p.m. Hope defeated Clarkson 25-16, 25-21, 25-20 in an earlier quarterfinal match Friday night.
Saturday's semifinal will mark the fourth meeting of the season between Calvin and Hope including the fifth in NCAA III Tournament play. However, it is just the second time the two teams will have met on a neutral floor in the NCAA III Tournament and the first time they will have met past the regional round of play.
Calvin's match against Christopher Newport was played in front of a boisterous home crowd of 1,873 fans who made the Freeman Center a deafening environment throughout most of the contest.
Calvin took the home crowd out of the match momentarily by claiming the first set 25-21 after trailing 3-0 early that forced a Calvin timeout.
Calvin later tied the set at 14 and then used a 4-0 run to take control of the opening set.
"They came after us with some really tough serves in that first set," said Calvin head coach Amber Warners. "It could have been easy to feel like we were in trouble but we didn't do that. We knew it would be a long match and hard-fought. We just had to keep fighting and I think we did that."
In set two, Calvin hit .619 and used six service errors by Christopher Newport (34-4) to roll to the win.
The Captains reversed the momentum in set three, vaulting out to an 18-13 lead and then holding off Calvin after the Knights closed to within 21-20. Calvin committed six service errors in set three.
Christopher Newport kept the momentum going early in set four, taking a 5-2 lead but back-to-back kills by senior Ellie Diepersloot (Madera, CA/Chowchilla HS) allowed the Knights to take a 6-5 lead.
After Christopher Newport tied the match 11-11, Calvin went on a 5-1 run to take a 16-12 lead. A service ace by freshman setter Jenna Lodewyk (Villa Park, IL/Timothy Christian HS) gave Calvin a 19-13 lead and the insurmountable momentum. Diespersloot closed out the match with a kill off a feed from Lodewyk to send the Knights on.
Both teams were aggressive with their service as each squad had seven service aces and 15 service errors.
"I thought it was a great atmosphere and very loud," said Warners. "We were pushed very hard and tensions were high on both sides which showed with the amount of service errors tonight. That is the type of thing that will happen at this level of the tournament."
As a team, Calvin hit .383. Junior Maggie Kamp (Orland Park, IL /Chicago Christian HS) had a match-high 17 kills to go with five service aces and eight digs. Sophomore Laura Danhoff (Willard, OH/Willard HS) hit at a .412 clip and collected nine kills while Diepersloot had nine kills and a .474 hitting percentage. Senior Stacey Kamp (Orland Park, IL/Chicago Christian HS) contributed five kills and a .444 hitting percentage. Junior Emily Crowe (Granger, IN/Mishawaka Penn HS) had seven kills and a big solo block late in set four. Lodewyk tallied 38 assists, six kills and a hitting percentage of .667 while senior Elise Biesboer (Elmhurst, IL/Timothy Christian HS) came up with 15 digs.
"This was just a very good all-around team performance," said Warners. "I think one of the hallmarks of our team has been the ability of other players to step up. When teams focus on Maggie (Kamp) or Laura (Danhoff) other players have stepped up offensively. I think our back row tonight was also very strong. Our players back there sometimes get overlooked but tonight our back row was very good."
Christopher Newport was led in defeat by Hannah Miller with 10 kills. Briana Sutton had nine kills and four service aces while setter Rachel Conway had 28 assists.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 90, Allegheny 50
By Gina de Haan
HIRAM, OH - On Friday, the Knights traveled to Hiram College (Ohio) to take on the Allegheny College Gators (Pennsylvania) in their first game of the Terrier Tip-Off Classic. Calvin played well for the full forty minutes and defeated Allegheny 90-50.
Calvin came out strong, scoring the first ten points of the nonconference contest. The Knights held that lead for the remainder of the first half, going on a six-point run before heading into the break with a 44-25 lead. In first-half play, Kally Verkaik (Holland, MI/Holland Christian HS) contributed thirteen points, four assists, and three rebounds for the Knights.
To kick-off the second half, Kayla Englehard (Unionville, MI/Saginaw Valley Lutheran HS) knocked down a three to give the Knights a 22-point lead. Calvin played another solid half, leading the Terriers for the remainder of the game.
Engelhard led the Knights in scoring and rebounds, tallying 22 points and eight boards. Kally Verkaik finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, and led Calvin with five assists. Breanna Verkaik ((Holland, MI/Holland Christian HS) added 11 points to the effort. Hannah Acre (DeWitt, MI/DeWitt HS) had six rebounds.
Jessica Mrdjenovich and Emma Pellicano led the Gators with 11 points apiece.
On Saturday afternoon, the Knights will matchup against the hosting Hiram College Terriers. Tip-off will be at 3:00 p.m.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 89, Waynesburg 71
By Mark DeHaan
The Calvin men's basketball team continued its home stretch to open up the season, hosting the Yellow Jackets of Waynesburg University on Friday evening for the second game of the Great Lakes Challenge. Ohio Wesleyan University defeated Alma College 82-67 in the first game of the night.
Using a balanced scoring attack, Calvin defeated Waynesburg 89-71 as six Knights scored in double-figures.
The Knights jumped out to a 6-0 advantage in the opening two minutes, a lead which was lost as the Yellow Jackets responded with six of their own to tie the game at 6-6.
Calvin responded with a 9-2 run, capped by a layup from sophomore Brad Visser, to take a 15-8 with 13:20 remaining in the first.
A fast-break basket by senior Jordan Brink then put the Knights up by double-digits at 23-13, forcing a Waynesburg timeout.
The Yellow Jackets fought their way back, but with 3:18 to go in the half, Brink hit a pair of free throws to put the Knights up 32-25 and to bring his career point total to 1000.
Again, Waynesburg began to reel in the Knights, and with time winding down in the first half, the Yellow Jackets hit a runner to cut their deficit to 41-37 at the break.
At the half, Brink had nine points while junior Austin Parks and freshman Connor VanderBrug each had eight. BJ Durham had 17 first half points for Waynesburg.
In the second half, the Yellow Jackets claimed the lead with 17:38 to go on a three-pointer by Durham. A Brink jumper and layup by senior Tyler Dykstra swayed the game back into Calvin's favor, and the Knights began to slowly pull away.
With 13:27 to go, a layup by VanderBrug gave Calvin a 57-51 lead.
A jumper by Brink minutes later put the Knights ahead 65-57.
Calvin reclaimed a double-digit advantage on a layup by junior Jordan Daley at 72-61.
With 5:32 to go, Waynesburg cut the deficit to 75-66, but the Yellow Jackets would come no closer as the Knights pulled away for an 89-71 victory.
Calvin shot 60% from the field, hitting 33-of-55 shots. Meanwhile, the Yellow Jackets were held to 27-of-70 shooting for 38.6%. The Knights out-rebounded Waynesburg 39-28.
Individually, Brink led Calvin with 19 points, seven rebounds, and six assists, while Daley added 18 points and five boards.
For the Yellow Jackets, Durham scored 30 points to pace the offense, while Jason Propst was the only other player in double-figures with 12 points.
"We're a little young. We were young last Saturday and we're going to be young tomorrow. We have a lot of things to learn," said head coach Kevin Vande Streek. "We got out-rebounded for about 30 minutes, and that's very disappointing, but the last 10 minutes were really good and it's great to come out with a win."
With the win, Calvin improves to 2-0 overall while Waynesburg falls to 0-3. The Knights play their second game of the Great Lakes Challenge on Saturday as they host Ohio Wesleyan at 3 p.m. Alma and Waynesburg will face off at 1 p.m. at Van Noord Arena.
Received on Sat Nov 22 00:33:57 2014
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