Volleyball Recap (Week 7) - Around the SCAC

Volleyball Recap (Week 7) - Around the SCAC

SUWANEE, Ga. - The 12th ranked Southwestern University Pirates dropped just one game while winning all four matches at the SCAC East/West crossover hosted by Colorado College. The wins improve the Pirates to 14-0 in conference and 23-3 overall.

AROUND THE SCAC

Austin College went 1-3 at the SCAC East/West crossover. The ‘Roos started the weekend off by dropping a 3-1 decision to DePauw before finishing the first day of the tournament with a 3-0 win over Sewanee. Austin College then began the second day with a tough 3-1 loss to Centre before ending the tournament with a tough 3-1 loss to No. 12 Southwestern. The ‘Roos currently sport a 20-7 overall record and an SCAC record of 9-6. Austin College returns to the court on Tuesday when they host No. 11 University of Texas-Dallas before traveling to Georgetown, Texas for the Southwestern Invitational.

Birmingham-Southern (11-13) traveled to Thousand Oaks, California last weekend to play in the Cal Lutheran University Fall Classic. BSC went 1-3 on the trip, falling to Occidental College, LaVerne, and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, but beating the classic host Cal Lutheran. Senior outside hitter Sarah Harris made history twice this weekend by becoming Birmingham-Southern volleyball's all-time kills and digs leader. Harris set the kills record against Trinity last Sunday, passing the previous mark of 1,541 set by Rachel Malmborg, who played from 2001-2004. She surpassed the previous career digs leader, Miljana Lazarevik with 1,342, in Friday night's win against CLU with 18 digs in the match. Harris' total for the weekend was 44, putting her career total at 1,361. The Panthers are at home for their next match this Wednesday, Oct. 21, facing Miles College at 6 p.m. in Bill Battle Coliseum.

Centre went 2-2 at the East/West Cross-Divisional #2 hosted by Colorado College. The Colonels dropped their first two matches on Friday to #13 Southwestern and #14 Colorado College in three games. On Saturday Centre played Austin and Oglethorpe and were able to pull out wins in both matches in four games each. The win against Austin represents Centre’s first win against a school from Texas and their first win against a school receiving national recognition since 2004.

Emily Perkins had a match-high 19 kills to lead No. 14 Colorado College to a 3-1 victory over No. 15 Trinity University. Colorado College also extended its home-court winning streak to 21 matches and has now won 42 out of 46 sets at Reid Gymnasium in 2009. Perkins completed her 12 double-double of the season and 43rd of her career with 15 digs. Laura Goldsmith posted her fifth double-double of the season with 14 kills and 15 digs. Meredith Ballard set the school record for hitting percentage in a single match to lead the Tigers to a 3-0 victory over Sewanee. She connected for 13 kills on 14 attacks without an error for a .929 clip. Perkins had a match-high nine kills and a .421 hitting percentage as CC cruised over Oglethorpe. The Tigers play host to their final regular-season tournament of the year next weekend when Chapman University, Millikin University and UC Santa Cruz visit Colorado College for the Spike It Up Classic.

DePauw improved to 22-6 overall and 8-3 in conference play after winning four of five matches last week. The Tigers opened the week with a 3-2 (25-18, 22-25, 20-25, 25-20, 16-14) win at Rose-Hulman before sweeping Friday SCAC matches against Austin 3-1 (25-15, 21-25, 25-20, 25-20) and 15th-ranked Trinity 3-2 (25-22, 18-25, 19-25, 25-23, 15-12). On Saturday, 13th-ranked Southwestern topped the Tigers by a 3-0 (12-25, 21-25, 20-25) score before DePauw came back to blank Sewanee 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-15). For the week, Katey Larson paced DePauw with 54 kills (2.7/set) and a .301 attack percentage. Ali Smith averaged 10.7 assists per set with Maggie Pajakowski totaling seven service aces in just four sets. Madison Hoenig's 87 digs led the team as did Kristen Chynoweth's 21 blocks.

Hendrix took the week off from competition and enjoyed a relaxing fall break with family and friends. The Warriors return to action on Tuesday when they host Lyon College, before traveling to Danville, Ky. to compete in the SCAC Central vs. East Divisional Crossover. Hendrix currently sits at 8-18 overall and 2-9 in SCAC play.

Millsaps had the week off but will return to the court tomorrow night at Mississippi College and then travel to Danville, Ky., for another SCAC Cross Divisional.

Oglethorpe won both their non-conference matchups this week before losing all four of their conference contests in Colorado Springs. The Petrels got easy thee game sweeps over Piedmont College and Wesleyan last Tuesday but found the going tougher in SCAC play. Oglethorpe managed to only win one set in consecutive losses to Colorado College, Southwestern, Trinity and Centre. For the season, the Petrels stand at 12-14 overall and will travel to Danville for SCAC matches this coming weekend.

Rhodes went 3-2 this weekend at the Rhodes Fall Break Classic. The team defeated Monmouth, Transylvania and Rust College while dropping matches to Adrian and a tough five set match to Averett University. The Lynx were led by Senior Middle Blocker Maura Mohler (also our POW nomination). On the weekend Mohler led the Lynx with 28 kills with only 9 hitting errors. She also contributed 16 digs, 8 blocks and 5 service aces.

Sewanee played Trinity, Austin College, Colorado College and DePauw this weekend in Colorado Springs and lost each match by the same 3-0 tally. In Sunday's match against host Colorado College, Sammie Maddox (Winder, Ga.) led with four kills, while Erin Brahm led with 10 assists. Prior to the weekend, Maddox had 94 kills and Brahm had a team-leading 294 assists. Sewanee's record falls to 3-19 overall and 0-11 in SCAC play. The Tigers will be back in action on Tuesday night as they host Maryville College at Juhan Gymnasium in non-conference action.

No. 12 Southwestern continued its march through the SCAC with four wins over the weekend at Colorado College. The wins improves SU to 14-0 in conference action and 23-3 overall, extending their win streak to 21. The Pirates dropped just one game over the four match stretch and locked in first place in the conference. A team hitting percentage of .236 undoubtedly aided in the wins this weekend as did the depth of the SU attacking line as nine Pirates recorded kills, six in double digits. Sophomore Christina Nicholls had 148 assists over the weekend and averaged over 11 assists per game and nearly three digs per game. Senior Audra Gentry led with 52 kills for a 5.20 kills/game average while first-year Rachel Thibodeau had a 3.09 kills/game average that included 15 kills off the bench against Austin College. SU will remain on the road this week as they head to the Austin College Tournament to face stiff American Southwest Conference opponents.

No. 17 Trinity went 2-2 at the second SCAC East-West Tournament of the year, defeating Sewanee and Oglethorpe, but falling to DePauw and Colorado College. Trinity swept Sewanee to open the weekend, then faced off with DePauw in a rematch from earlier this season. Trinity took a 2-1 lead in the match, but couldn’t hold on as DePauw earned a 3-2 win. Trinity bounced back with a 3-0 win over Oglethorpe, then lost a very close match to hosting Colorado College. Trinity returns home to face Texas Lutheran, Elmhurst, and UT-Tyler in the Trinity University Fall Classic this weekend, then will remain home for the final weekend of the regular season. The Tigers will host top-ranked UW-Oshkosh, second-ranked Juniata, and No. 8 Wittenberg in the Trinity University National Invitational, October 30-31.

For the complete SCAC Spikes Weekly for Week 7, click here.

Happy Holidays from the SCAC!
December 25, 2009 Happy Holidays from the SCAC!
BSC's Goldfarb earns 300th win
September 6, 2009 BSC's Goldfarb earns 300th win