CHANUTE — Going 1-3 was not the start Allen Community College’s Red Devils expected to have to the 2012 volleyball season.
“We struggled to maintain in matches. We can play competing to 12 to 18 points but need work on defeating people,” said Jessica Peters, ACC head coach. “We have a lot to improve upon.”
On Friday, the Red Devils opened the Neosho County Community College Invitational with a 25-23, 25-18, 25-18 loss to the hosting Panthers. Peters said the enemy in the match was not the panthers but “the Red Devils competing against themselves.”
The next match was a hard one to take for the Red Devils. Allen got up on Coffeyville winning the first two sets — 25-20, 25-19 — then lost the third set 26-24. Coffeyville took the momentum and ran with it winning 25-14, 15-13 for the match victory.
“We left Coffeyville confused early but the third set allowed the momentum to swing their way. We made a lot of errors. We came home after the first day of play with 16 service errors,” Peters said.
Peters said the Red Devils showed back up in Chanute Saturday with new goals, fresh attitudes and a healthy warm-up. “We were ready, but anything that could go wrong did as Butler took advantage of us at the net,” Peters said.
Butler downed Allen 25-11, 25-12, 25-17.
“This was a major eye-opener to our team against the team that will be our first conference match Wednesday at home,” Peters said. Butler Community College comes to Allen Wednesday. Match time is 6:30 p.m.
Finishing the tournament against Marshalltown, Iowa, the Red Devils lost the first set. Peters said she changed the lineup moving Sidney Keith to the middle, Danielle Goodman to the outside and Cheyanne Miller to the right side.
“The Devils found chemistry and won the next two sets,” Peters said. Marshalltown tied the match up two sets each and it came down to a fifth set.
“We wanted to be the first team to eight points and push to finish but a slow start had us down 6-4. Hayley Mertens went on a serving run and we were able to get to 9-6. We played sideout to sideout until Adriee Munoz served for us and Danielle Goodman had a kill to give us the match,” Peters said.
Allen won 19-25, 25-6, 25-14, 22-25, 15-10. Goodman had 17 kills in the match and Mertens had 12 kills and 17 digs. Keith had eight kills while Tayler Shook led the team with 19 digs.
Jacqui Oritz put up 23 set assists and had 16 digs. Munoz had 16 assists.
For the four matches, Mertens had 50 kills and 50 digs. Goodman had 24 kills in the tournament and 30 digs. Keith delivered 22 kills and Sierra Morgison had 17 kills.
Randi Billings made 20 kills at the net plus had seven solo blocks and six assisted blocks. Cheyanne Miller had one solo block and eight assisted blocks.
