ACCC volleyball team goes 1-3

FORT SCOTT — Allen County Community College’s Red Devils had a rough start to the 2011 volleyball season.
The youthful team went 1-3 at the Fort Scott Community College tournament Friday and Saturday. The lone win came over Cottey College, 25-23, 25-20, 25-18. The Red Devils lost to Coffeyville, Labette and Fort Scott.
“We’ll reflect on ‘us’ (Sunday) in practice and look forward to our home opener,” said Jessica Peters, ACCC head coach.
That home opener is tonight at 6:30 against Longview Community College.
Coffeyville defeated Allen County after the Red Devils won the opening set. The Red Ravens took the next three sets, winning 22-25, 25-19, 25-16, 25-18. The Red Devils played the tournament without the services of freshman hitter Hayley Mertens, who sprained her ankle a week ago in the scrimmages at Butler Community College.
“After winning the first set, the pressure set in as this was the start of the season for us not a scrimmage. We dug ourselves holes in the next three sets with errors,” Peters said.
The Red Devils snapped back to claim a win over Cottey. Despite a slow start, the Red Devils got the first set. Peters said Allen County’s players adjusted their intensity level and played better in the next two sets for the win.
“We discussed what we knew needed to happen for us to succeed Saturday and were looking forward to playing Labette the first match in the morning,” Peters said. “Unfortunately, our play against Labette did not reflect our talk.”
Labette beat Allen County 25-15, 25-23, 23-25, 25-10. Allen County lost 25-17, 25-12, 25-21 to Fort Scott.
Peters said the Fort Scott match was the most promising of the weekend. She said the Red Devils played more as a team and their consistency of effort and attitude was better.
“The whole team stepped up in this match. We know where we can be and where we don’t want to be after this weekend,” Peters said. “There were times we played to our competition’s level which was out of system and out of control.
“The players are committed to push the level up and work on the areas we need to focus on.”
Statistics were not available from the Coffeyville match but the technical problems were worked out for the other three matches.
Alli Jenicke led the Red Devils with 35 kills and three solo blocks and two assisted blocks at the net. Makhala Giardina piled up 26 kills and had one solo block. Jordyne Seichepine downed 20 kills and put up two solo blocks and four assisted blocks.
Randi Billings delivered three solo blocks and four assisted blocks and had 10 kills. Kaitlyn Speer had five kills, three assisted blocks and one solo block. Autumn Douglas had four kills and one assisted block and Jacqui Ortiz had two kills.
Ortiz was credited with 50 set assists and Sabrina Stanley had 22 set assists. Seichepine served up seven aces. Also from the service line, Billings, Ortiz and Stanley each had one ace.
Jenicke came up with 36 digs and Ortiz had 29 digs. Giardina and Stanley had 22 digs each while Nicole Reed and Seichepine had 20 digs apiece. Speer had 10 digs followed by Billings with eight and Alisha Keith with seven digs. Douglas had two digs.