Wednesday evening had lots of excitement on the volleyball court.
There were a number of extended rallies between two evenly matched teams, as each set went down to the wire.
Unfortunately for the boisterous crowd supporting Allen Community College, the breaks at the end tended to favor the visitors from Kansas City, Kansas.
Kansas City scored the game-winner in the first set on a serve that hit the net and dropped on Allen’s side for the point. The second set-winner came on a near miss-hit, in which the ball fell gently on Allen’s side.
Allen bounced back to win a nip-and-tuck third set, but the Blue Devils ended the fourth set, and match, with another nailbiter to seal the 3-1 victory, 25-23, 25-23, 24-26 and 25-23.
“We played hard,” Allen head coach Maria Aikins said. “Some things didn’t go our way that were uncontrollable.”
What was controllable, she noted, was Kansas City’s aggressive serving and play at the net, which put Allen at a disadvantage.
“We had to move a lot and set up blocks,” Aikins said. “They’re tall and athletic, which makes it kind of hard when you’re under-sized. We turned up our level of play the last two sets.”
Allen led the first set, 22-21, but a crucial out-of-bounds call was reversed in favor of Kansas City after video review, tying the score instead of giving Allen a 23-21-lead.
The Blue Devils then took leads of 23-22 and 24-23, setting up a service ace from Veronica Rolando that hit the net and crawled over to win the set.
The second set was more of the same, before KCK rattled off six straight points to lead 21-16.
Allen didn’t give up without a fight.
The deficit was 24-18 before Allen rattled off five straight points, capped by a Josie Weers kill, giving a charge to the vocal student cheering section.
But on the next service, Kansas City’s Glodalys Colon was going up for a kill attempt, when the ball rolled off the top of her hands, giving it just enough elevation to flutter over a pair of Red Devil blockers for the winning point.
Undeterred, Allen jumped out to a 14-11 lead in the third set, before another Blue Devil rally evened things. Things were looking dour when a reversed call gave KCK a 20-19 lead. The teams traded points from there until Kansas City took a 24-23 lead with a chance to serve out the set.
