Allen Community College picked up its third volleyball in a row Monday, but head coach Maria Aikins was hardly in the mood to celebrate.
“I wasn’t real happy with how we played,” Aikins said of Allen’s 3-1 win over visiting Ottawa University’s junior varsity squad. “We have a tendency to play down to the level of our competition.”
After cruising through the first two sets with relative ease, and jumping ahead 5-2 in the early goings of the third, Allen’s offense stalled against Ottawa’s front line.
The Braves rattled off nine straight points to take the lead. The Red Devils mounted a late charge, but eventually faltered in the set.
Fortunately, Allen righted its ship in the fourth set, bursting out of the gates to complete the 25-17, 25-19, 22-25, 25-14 win.
Aikins wasn’t sure if the sloppy effort was Allen’s busy week ahead, with Monday’s tussle the second of seven in an eight-day stretch, including a home showdown Wednesday evening with defending NJCAA-II national champion Cowley County.
She acknowledged the difficulty in maintaining a mental edge for such a gauntlet. After Wednesday is a weekend tournament in Kansas City, Mo., “which is gonna be tough,” she said. “We just have to keep focused and stay healthy.”
As an aside, Monday’s match introduced to the home crowd one of the first uses of video review in junior college volleyball.
A sequence late in the third set prompted Aikins to challenge the referees’ call that the ball hit the floor on Allen’s side of the net after Joliyanis Roman and Grace Larimore combined for a spectacular save. Roman got it started after Ottawa gently tipped the ball over the net instead of trying for a thunderous spike.
Roman dove to the floor, tipping the ball with one hand, keeping it aloft just enough for Larimore to make a similar one-handed diving save. She kept the ball alive for Peek to bat the ball with one hand over the net. The ball hit the floor inbounds on Ottawa’s side of the court, but by then the refs had blown the action dead and awarded the point to Ottawa.
The call was critical because it kept Allen’s faint hopes alive for a comeback in the third set. Upon further review, the referees agreed Allen had kept the ball alive and ordered a replay. The sequence wound up a moot point because Ottawa drilled a winning kill on the next service to win the third set.
Nevertheless, Aikins was happy the system worked as it was intended.
Video review will be mandatory for Allen’s volleyball and basketball games starting this season.
Wednesday’s match with Cowley County begins at 6 p.m.
