Posted: Oct 24, 2011
SUWANEE, Ga. - With the regular season conference schedule complete, the seeds are now set for the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference postseason volleyball tournament Nov. 4-5. The winner receives the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Volleyball Championship.
AROUND THE SCAC
Austin College went 1-2 at the final SCAC
Divisional over the weekend, finishing the conference regular
season with a mark of 9-5 after falling to No. 7 Southwestern and
Trinity each by a 3-1 margin before beating Dallas 3-0 to wrap up
the weekend. The ‘Roos fought hard against Southwestern on
Friday night before falling 24-26, 25-23, 22-25, 21-25 to the
Pirates, and on Saturday morning the ‘Roos dropped a 16-25,
27-25, 18-25, 13-25 decision against Trinity. Austin College
finished the divisional with a 25-19, 25-19, 25-15 win over the
Crusaders to improve to 20-11 overall. Jessi Fleming had a big
weekend, averaging 4.64 kills and 1.64 blocks with a hitting
percentage of .382, and Adrienne Reynolds boasted a staggering 9.18
digs per set average for the weekend, tallying 101 digs without a
single receiving error. Kelly McDaniel added 10.82 assists and 3.73
digs per set and Shelby Eaves averaged 3.36 kills and 3.18 digs per
set.
Birmingham-Southern swept Centre, Sewanee and
Oglethorpe this weekend in Atlanta, and also defeated Martin
Methodist earlier in the week to go 4-0. With the three wins in
Atlanta, the Panthers went undefeated against East Division teams,
sweeping all six matches by the score of 3-0. BSC will host its
Fall Invitational this weekend, featuring Susquehanna University,
Berry College, Fisk University, and Spring Hill College. Play
begins at 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 28, and continues through
Saturday evening. The Panthers are in action at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.
on Friday and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday.
Centre went 2-1 at the second SCAC East Inter
pod hosted by Oglethorpe University. The Colonels opened with
a three game loss to BSC followed by a four game win against
Oglethorpe and then a three game sweep of Sewanee. The team
will head into the SCAC Championships as the seventh seed just as
they did last year when they made their “Cinderella”
like run to a third place finish.
No. 13 Colorado College went 4-0 this past week and extended its winning streak to 14 games, which ties for the longest winning streak in program history. CC had set the mark in 1985 when it opened the season winning 14 straight games from Sept. 7-14. The Tigers beat Ursuline (3-0), Hendrix (3-0), Rhodes (3-1) and Millsaps (3-1). Senior Amy Schornack added to her record at CC during the first game of the week against Ursuline. On Schornack’s 31st assist of the game, she hit the 4,000 career assists mark. She is the only setter in program history to obtain 4,000 career assists. Schornack currently holds the record with 4,112 career assists. In the Tigers last game of the week, several players set career-highs against Millsaps. Senior Sarah Schmoker had a career-high 19 kills and junior Kate Squires added a career-high 15 kills on offense. Junior Laura Goldsmith led the defense with a career-high 34 digs. Schornack ran the Tiger offense with 143 assists over four games. Goldsmith led the defense with 67 digs and the offense with 42 kills during the week. The Tigers will host Colorado State University – Pueblo for senior night on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m.
Dallas (16-16, 4-10 SCAC) went 1-3 on the week, defeating Arlington Baptist (3-0) at home on 'Senior Night' before dropping three straight matches to Trinity (3-1), Southwestern (3-0) and Austin College (3-0). This weekend, the Lady Crusaders will play three matches in Prescott, Ariz. -- Johnson and Wales University (Colo.), Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Ariz.) and Cal State University-San Marcos (Calif.). Winning ten of their previous thirteen matches, Dallas seeks to get back to their winning ways and head into the 2011 SCAC Volleyball Championship Tournament looking to catch fire as the No. 9 seed.
After a three-set loss at Williams Baptist on Tuesday, Hendrix returned home on Thursday and lost to Lyon College in five, despite coming up with a season-best 16 blocks. Four players set or tied their career-best in total blocks. Hendrix wrapped up the SCAC schedule by hosting the Central Inter-Pod. On Saturday, the Warriors were swept by #13 Colorado College and Millsaps. Against, the Majors junior Katie Bates connected on 10 kills and freshman libero Ella Concavage-Nasar had 19 digs. Rhodes swept Hendrix on Sunday to end the weekend. Hendrix finished the SCAC schedule 5-9, tying the most conference wins in program history, set in 2005. This week, Hendrix will wrap up the regular season at Arkansas-Monticello on Thursday and host Bacone on Saturday.
Millsaps took two out of three matches this past weekend at the SCAC Central Inter-Pod at Hendrix. With the result, the Majors locked up the sixth seed in the SCAC Volleyball Tournament which will be held in Jackson. In Game One against a pesky Rhodes squad, the Majors took a thrilling five set match. Junior Raven Scott led the way with 14 kills, 20 assists, 18 digs, and seven block assists. Junior Kasey Laird added 11 kills and 23 digs while senior Maggie Tumminello had four service aces. The Majors came back late that night to take on the home standing Warriors as they went on to sweep them. Millsaps returned the following afternoon to take on No. 13 Colorado College. The Majors played the Tigers tough, but did not have enough to pull the upset as they fell 3-1. Freshman Caroline McKey posted a career high 16 kills and 17 digs. The Majors will play Oglethorpe in the first round of the SCAC Tournament with the winner moving on to play the No. 4 seed, Austin College. The Majors swept the Stormy Petrels in their one meeting this season. Millsaps concludes its regular season this weekend with a non-conference tournament including the 20th Anniversary Game on Friday night at 7 p.m.
Oglethorpe went 2-2 this past week. The Petrels won a midweek non-conference match over Brewton Parker (W, 3-0) and won their first match of the SCAC East Inter-Pod against Sewanee as well (W, 3-0). Oglethorpe then dropped the last two matches of the Inter-Pod to Centre (L, 3-1) and Birmingham-Southern (L, 3-0). The Petrels are now 8-21 on the season and 3-11 in SCAC play. They will conclude the regular season this week with a home match versus Huntingdon (Tuesday) and a road tilt at Piedmont (Thursday).
Rhodes went 1-2 in this weekend's SCAC Central Pod hosted by Hendrix. The Lynx dropped their opening match to Millsaps in a five set thriller in what amounted to an exact replica of the teams’ first meeting a few weeks ago. Claire Warren led the Lynx with 22 kills and 26 digs while Libero Maraia Tremarelli turned in another 30 dig performance. Against Colorado College the Lynx took the opening set before falling in three sets. Outside hitter Meagan Mansfield led the team with 11 kills and 7 service aces. In the team's final match against Hendrix, the Lynx defeated the Warriors in three straight sets.
Sewanee posted a 2-3 record over last week. During the last part of fall break the Tigers picked up non-conference wins against Lane and Rust. Sewanee then dropped three 3-0 contests to SCAC foes Oglethorpe, Birmingham-Southern and Centre. The week the Tigers will look will close out their regular season against Fisk, Piedmont and Wesleyan College. One of Sewanee’s six victories came earlier in the year against Fisk, after the Tiger took care of their in-state rival 3-0 September 2. Individually, freshman Kayla Sewell had a strong week after breaking the Tigers single-season blocks record during the second game of Sewanee’s match with Birmingham-Southern. Sewell currently sits with 86 blocks, which is six stops better than former standout Helen Weirsma, who had the previous mark at 80 blocks in 2002.
No. 7 Southwestern closed out SCAC regular season action this weekend and kept their perfect record in-tact with wins over Austin College, Dallas and Trinity. The Pirates got out to a slow start against the tough Austin College team and pulled out the win in four sets. Saturday, SU opened with UD in the second match of the day at the West Divisional #2. Southwestern was, once again, slow to start but bounced back to form to win in three. The nightcap was the highly anticipated match between conference rivals, Trinity and Southwestern. The Pirates easily won the first set, 15-17, after jumping out to an early lead but Trinity pulled out the win in the second and third sets to pull ahead 2-1. Southwestern evened the match 2-2 with a 25-18 win in the fourth set. The Pirates then won 15-12 in the fifth set. With the wins the Pirates move to 24-2 on the year, 14-0 in conference.
Trinity finished off its SCAC schedule with a 2-1 record at the SCAC West Divisional #2 over the weekend, defeating both Austin College and the University of Dallas, but falling 3-2 to seventh-ranked Southwestern in the tournament finale. Both of Trinity’s meetings with Southwestern have resulted in 3-2 losses so far this season. The Tigers will finish off the regular season with five matches this week, starting with the team’s regular season home finale against Schreiner University on Wednesday. Trinity then will travel to Georgetown, Texas, to face UT-Dallas, Texas Wesleyan, East Texas Baptist, and Clarkson on the final weekend before the SCAC Championships Tournament.
For the complete SCAC Spikes Weekly for Week 8, click here.
