Volleyball Recap (Week 4) - Around the SCAC

Centre went 3-1 to open up their conference play at the East/Central crossover hosted by Sewanee. They opened up the weekend with a 3-2 win over Millsaps and a 3-2 win over Rhodes; marking the seventh time this year the Colonels have gone the distance with a team and all of them have been a win by two points or loss by two points. On Saturday Centre began the day by winning game one against Colorado but were unable to hold the momentum and eventually lost to the Tigers in four games. The Colonels wrapped up the weekend with a 3-1 win over Hendrix to pull their overall record back over .500 for the first time since opening weekend.

No. 14 Colorado College went undefeated over the weekend during the SCAC East/Central Crossover to open the 2011 conference season, 4-0. The Tigers opened conference play with wins over Oglethorpe (3-0), Sewanee (3-0), Centre (3-1) and Birmingham-Southern (3-0). Senior Amy Schornack ran the offense for the Tigers, dishing out 123 assists over the weekend. Senior Hannah Varnell led the team on defense with 61 digs to average 15.3 digs a game. Junior Laura Goldsmith led the offense with 39 kills and added 52 digs and 12 service aces over the weekend. Goldsmith got her fifth double-double of the season against Centre with a team-high 22 digs and a career-high 17 kills. CC fell, 3-0 in a mid-week game against Division II University of Colorado at Colorado Springs on Sept. 21. Colorado College continues on the road as they take on Union College in a non-conference match at 6 p.m. on Sept. 29. The Tigers then travel to Memphis, Tenn. on Oct. 1-2 for the SCAC Central/West Crossover.

Dallas opened up Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play this past weekend at the SCAC West-Interpod matches. The Lady Crusaders fell to Trinity, 3-1 on Friday and dropped a 3-1 decision to ninth-ranked Southwestern on Saturday. Dallas finished the weekend with a tough 3-2 loss to the home-standing   Austin College Kangaroos. Dallas is now 6-8 overall and 0-3 in SCAC play. The Lady Crusaders return to action on Sept. 27 at Southwestern Assemblies of God before continuing SCAC play this weekend at Rhodes.

Hendrix went 4-1 for the week, including 3-1 at the SCAC East/Central Divisional at Sewanee over the weekend. The Warriors started with four-set win at Central Baptist. Junior middle blocker Melissa Clement recorded 20 kills and hit .412 with four blocks. The Warriors opened SCAC play with a sweep against host Sewanee. Hendrix hit .333 with 37 kills and only made seven attack errors. Against Birmingham-Southern, Hendrix posted a season-best 13 blocks in the four-game win. Youngblood racked up 22 more digs and Burchfield had seven kills and 15 digs. On Sunday, the Warriors opened with a sweep against Oglethorpe, hitting .342 with 11.5 blocks. Freshman outside hitter Kylee Spicer hit .529 with 11 kills and Jaksich had seven kills, hit .545 and had six blocks. In a four-set loss to Centre, Clement had 13 kills and Katie Bates added nine.

Millsaps got things rolling as they traveled to Sewanee, Tenn. for the East/Central Divisional. The Majors (10-4, 3-1 SCAC) came out slow against Centre as they dropped a heart-breaking 3-2 decision to the Colonels. In the second game, the Majors made quick work of the Oglethorpe, knocking them off  in three sets. The following day, Millsaps beat Birmingham-Southern, 3-2. In game two, Millsaps beat home standing Sewanee, 3-0. Millsaps returns home on Tuesday to take on the Belhaven Blazers at 7 p.m. before traveling to Rhodes this weekend for the SCAC Central/West Divisional.

Oglethorpe went 1-4 this past week, while going 1-3 at the SCAC East/Central divisional at Sewanee. The Storm Petrels dropped contests to Covenant, Colorado College, Millsaps and Hendrix by 3-0 scores before salvaging the weekend with a 3-2 win over Rhodes. Oglethorpe is now 3-12 overall and 1-3 in SCAC play. The Petrels host Piedmont Thursday before traveling to Birmingham-Southern for the SCAC East-Interpod matches. 

Rhodes finished 1-4 over the week including 1-3 at this weekend’s opening conference matches. Rhodes dropped a non-conference match to Freed-Hardeman (3-1) before the losing to BSC in four sets and found themselves up 2-0 versus Centre before losing in a five set thriller. On Day two the Lynx found themselves tied with Sewanee 2-2 heading into the fifth set. The Lynx were down 12-2 before finding a way to pull out a 16-14 victory against the Tigers. With the only 30 minutes in between matches, the Lynx faced off against Oglethorpe. The Lynx were down 0-2 before forcing a fifth set against the Petrels. However, OU proved to be too much for the Lynx winning the match in five sets.

Sewanee dropped all four matches last week as the Tigers opened up SCAC play. The Tigers came out on the short end of a 3-0 match against Hendrix and Colorado College before losing a tough 3-2 decision to Rhodes on Sunday. Sewanee finished the weekend’s matches with a 3-0 loss to Millsaps. Sewanee is now 4-10 overall and 0-4 in the SCAC. The Tigers travel to Birmingham-Southern for this weekend’s SCAC East-Interpod matches.

No. 9 Southwestern opened up SCAC play with a 3-0 weekend at the SCAC West Divisional #1 to improve to 12-2 on the year and 3-0 in the conference. SU opened the weekend with host- Austin College on Friday night, starting out strong to win 25-21, 25-16 through the first two sets. The 'Roos put a rally together to take the second set 25-22, but Southwestern was too much for AC as SU easily won the fourth 25-14. Day two pitted the Pirates first against the University of Dallas. The Lady Crusaders proved to be no match for the experienced Southwestern team as they won in three. The final match of the day faced the Pirates against conference-rival Trinity. The highly anticipated match did not disappoint as the game went to five sets. Southwestern won the first 25-21 and TU took the second set by the same score, then went up 2-1 after a 25-17 set three win. The Pirates came back strong as they easily won the fourth set 25-13 and maintained the momentum in the fifth and final set to win 15-8. The Pirates return to non-conference action this weekend as they host Schreiner on Tuesday evening before heading back out on the road to Memphis for the SCAC West/Central Divisional #1.

Trinity went 1-2 at the SCAC West Divisional over the weekend, defeating the University of Dallas, but falling in two five-set matches against hosting Austin College and ninth-ranked Southwestern University. Despite pulling ahead 2-1 against Southwestern, the Tigers couldn’t hang on for the upset win. That match followed a tough-fought matchup with Austin College in which Trinity forced a fifth set, but also fell short in the end. Jenny Epperson and Maggie Emodi recorded double-doubles in two of the three matches over the weekend.  Epperson led the team in assists each match, while Emodi led in kills in all three contests. The Tigers will continue SCAC play this weekend, taking on Hendrix and Rhodes on Saturday, followed by Sunday matches with Millsaps and defending SCAC Champions Colorado College.

For the complete SCAC Spikes Weekly for Week 4, click here.