Volleyball Recap (Week 4) - Around the SCAC

Volleyball Recap (Week 4) - Around the SCAC

SUWANEE, Ga. - The Southwestern University Pirates finished the East/West crossover with a perfect 4-0 mark. Combined with Trinity University's two losses, the Pirates moved into sole possession of first place in the SCAC standings.

Along with Southwestern, Colorado College also finished the tournamnet with an umblemished 4-0 mark. Trinity, for the first time in SCAC history, lost more than one conference contest. The Tigers finished the East/West crossover with a 2-2 mark.

AROUND THE SCAC

Austin College finished the SCAC East/West crossover at DePauw with a 3-1 record. The ‘Roos won matches against Sewanee (3-0), Centre (3-1) and Oglethorpe (3-0) while losing to #13 Colorado College (3-1). Austin now stands at 16-3 overall and 5-2 in SCAC play. The ‘Roos are off this week and back in action the weekend of October 10-11 as they travel to Conway, Ark. and Hendrix College for the SCAC West/Central crossover.

Birmingham-Southern went 2-0 this week, defeating Piedmont College and Berry College at neutral-site LaGrange College, Saturday. The Panthers beat Piedmont 3-2 and Berry 3-1. Freshman Chelsea Pittman led the team over the two matches with 25 kills, averaging 2.78 per set, followed by freshman Shelby Moore with 21 and senior Sarah Harris with 20. Junior Christine Denning led with 66 assists (7.33 per set), and Harris led with 37 digs (4.11 per set), followed by junior Jennifer McKannan with 34 (3.78 per set). Moore led with eight blocks over the two matches, averaging 0.89 blocks per set. The Panthers travel to Memphis this weekend for the SCAC East/Central Divisional.

Centre traveled to DePauw University for their first Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference cross-divisional match-up. Centre faced off against Trinity, Austin, Colorado, and DePauw. The team lost all four matches by identical 3-1 scores. Next up for the Colonels is their second cross-divisional match-up; this time hosted by Rhodes College.

No. 12 Colorado College junior middle blocker Emily Perkins became the seventh player in Colorado College history to eclipse the 1,000-kill plateau while leading CC to a four-set victory over DePauw. During Sunday’s victory over Centre, Perkins became the 12th player in CC history to reach 100 career service aces. Freshman outside hitter Laura Goldsmith had a season-high 24 digs and junior middle blocker Erika Pirotte had eight total blocks to lead the defensive effort against DePauw. Sophomore rightside hitter Meredith Ballard hit .615 with eight kills on 13 attacks and added five blocks in the three-set win against Oglethorpe. Goldsmith put down nine kills and added 12 digs in the victory over Center. Ballard had a career-high 18 kills to power the Tigers to a four-set triumph over Austin College in CC’s final match of the weekend. Colorado College takes a break from conference play next weekend to play at Colorado Christian University on Friday night at 6 p.m. On Saturday, Colorado College will hold its first annual Steve Durand Alumni Match in honor of the Tigers’ long-time assistant coach who died on April 11.

DePauw finished the SCAC East/West crossover at home with a 2-2 record. The Tigers won matches against #11 Trinity (3-0) and Centre (3-1) while losing to #13 Colorado College (3-1) and #18 Southwestern (3-1). The win against Trinity was Trinity’s first conference loss of the season. DePauw now stands at 14-4 overall and 2-2 in SCAC play. The Tigers are back in action this weekend (October 3-4) as they travel to Memphis, Tenn. and Rhodes College for the SCAC East/Central crossover.

Hendrix won a pair of non-conference games on Saturday with straight set wins over Philander Smith College and Lyon College. The Warriors improved to 5-11 overall and remain at 1-3 in SCAC play. Hendrix junior outside hitter Leah Groat tallied 14 kills, while first year setter Danielle Young dished out 40 assists to lead the Warriors on Saturday. Groat led the team with nine kills against Philander Smith and then added five kills against Lyon. Young collected 28 assists against the Panthers, before making 12 assists against the Pipers. First year outside hitter Kelsey Manning totaled 12 kills on the day, while first year outside hitter Katie Bates finished the day with 11 kills. Young and first year outside hitter Alyssa Barry hammered home four aces apiece in the two games, while Bates and junior libero Kim Larson each made 14 digs.

Millsaps (6-8, 0-3 SCAC) ended a quiet week with a 1-0 record after shutting out Mississippi College 3-0 in a non-conference match at The Hangar Dome Tuesday night. The Majors utilized their depth and finished the match with a balanced attack as Kate Hall led the offense with 10 kills but Kasey Laird, Raven Scott and Maggie Tumminello were close behind with eight, six and five respectively. Millsaps begins a long road trip as it plays the next 15 matches on the road beginning with a non-conference contest at Loyola University (La.) on Tuesday before a SCAC cross divisional in Memphis, Tenn. next weekend.

Oglethorpe finished the SCAC East/West crossover at DePauw with a 1-3 record. The Stormy Petrels beat Sewanee 3-1 while losing to #18 Southwestern (3-0), #13 Colorado College (3-0) and Austin College (3-0). Oglethorpe now stands at 8-8 overall and 1-3 in SCAC play. The Petrels are back in action this weekend (October 3-4) as they travel to Memphis, Tenn. and Rhodes College for the SCAC East/Central crossover.

Rhodes had the weekend off. The Lynx are preparing to host this weekend’s SCAC East/Central crossover. Currently, Rhodes sports a 3-11 overall record while they look for their first conference win of the season (0-4).

Sewanee played Austin, Trinity, Southwestern and Oglethorpe at Greencastle, Ind. this weekend and dropped a pair each day to move to 2-11 so far in 2009.Libby Boddiford recorded 20 kills on the weekend and Erin Brahm had 52 assists. Senior Mary Beth Epps had 29 blocks as well. The Tigers, under the leadership of first year coach Katy Caine will travel to Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn. for matches against Centre and Birmingham Southern on Saturday and Millsaps and Rhodes on Sunday.

No. 15 Southwestern took care of business this past weekend at the SCAC West/East Crossover hosted by DePauw, winning all four contests including their final match against #11 Trinity. The Pirates opened the weekend on Saturday against Oglethorpe. Senior Lindsay Thompson played in just one game of the match but still managed to lead in kills with 10 and total blocks with 6 to help the Pirates roll to a 3-0 win. After a strong opening, SU moved on to face DePauw. Southwestern started a little slow, dropping game one 25-18, but quickly rebounded to win the match 3-1. The Pirates picked up where they left off to face Sewanee in their first game on Sunday. The Tigers proved to be no match for the streaking Pirates as SU easily won 3-0. The final match pit the Pirates against conference rival Trinity. The teams alternated games with Trinity taking games two and four and SU winning games one and three to set-up the crucial fifth game. Senior Reese Cisneros rattled off six straight serves to start game five and SU never looked back, capturing the final game 15-6 and the match 3-2. The Pirates improve to 14-3 overall and 7-0 in SCAC play. They will take the week off before heading to Belton, Texas for a non-conference match with the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor on October 6th.

No. 16 Trinity split four matches at the SCAC East-West Divisional Tournament, beating Centre and Sewanee, but losing to hosting DePauw and 18th-ranked Southwestern. The Tigers lost to DePauw for the first time ever during the SCAC regular season, and the team has also lost two regular season conference matches for the first time in SCAC history. Trinity returns home on October 1 for the only match of the week against Our Lady of the Lake University. Earlier this season, the Tigers lost a 3-2 match against OLLU in the Trinity University River City Classic.

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

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