Amid the pomp and circumstance surrounding Sophomore Night, and the expectation of a tough-as-nails postseason just ahead, Allen Community College’s volleyball team took care of business Wednesday.
The Red Devils controlled the match against visiting Coffeyville from the get-go, cruising to a 3-0 victory, 25-14, 25-14 and 25-15.
Quick starts in all three sets set the tone.
Allen turned a 4-3 lead into a 10-3 advantage in the first set, raced to 9-5 and 14-5 in Set 2, and 11-3 and 18-0 in the third.
Even so, head coach Maria Aikins wasn’t fully satisfied with the win.
“We really weren’t at our best,” she said. “We weren’t as crisp as we could have been.”
Even with the quick starts, she noted, Allen had periodic lulls that allowed Coffeyville to string occasional runs together.
Freshman Alysa Ladson hammered the final point to finish off the first set.
Allen led 20-6 in the second before Coffeyville rattled off a 6-point run, prompting Aikins to call a timeout.
Ladson had another kill before ACC sophomore Josie Weers ended the second set with a kill.
The lead was 20-10 in the third set, as the teams went back-and-forth in the waning moments. A Red Raven return went long to end the set and match.
Ladson led the hitters with 12 kills, followed close behind by Patricia Mita’s 10. Weers and Chloe Curl added seven apiece. Isabella Simoine-Lagoa racked up 32 assists and two service aces. Audrey Peek also served up a pair of aces. Simione-Lagoa had two blocks.
Weers, one of five sophomores honored after the match, said Allen volleyball has set a new level of expectation since Aikins’s arrival as head coach prior to the 2023 season.
“Coming in with a lot of new girls last year, we didn’t know how it was going to be,” said Weers, who missed the 2023 campaign because of a knee injury.
The Le Roy native watched with joy as the Red Devils stormed into the Region VI playoffs before bowing out to eventual national champion Cowley County.
