Smarting from a tough home conference loss on Wednesday, Allen Community College’s Red Devils came onto their home court Friday night with a chip on their shoulders.
Unfortunately for Cottey College’s Comets, they had next on the volleyball court with the Red Devils.
Allen downed Cottey 25-10, 25-13, 29-27.
“Friday night lights were in the Allen gym and we knew we had something to prove,” Jessica Peters, ACC head coach. “We had the start we wanted.”
Peters said Hayley Mertens provided the muscle at the net with seven kills out of 11 attacks in the first set. Tayler Shook served three points and Jacqui Ortiz had a five-point run on the service line to push the Red Devils toward the set victory.
“Serve received, blocks at the net were solid and we stayed aggressive on the service line,” Peters said. “Then we started the second set with serve receive and attack errors so we’re playing with Cottey early instead of fixing a mistake and getting on a run.”
Peters said the Red Devils turned the tide in the second set on a five-point service run with Shook on the serve. Not far behind that came a Mertens serving seven consecutive points.
The third set turned into a point-for-point affair. Peters said Cottey minimized its errors, showed up with a block and the Comets were smarter about ball placement.
“Knowing we needed to earn set and match point, the girls didn’t let up. We finished with a kill by Hayley,” Peters said.
Mertens ended up with 14 kills and a block assist at the net. She also had 16 digs and one service ace. Danielle Goodman put down 11 kills and had six digs while Sidney Keith had nine kills and six digs.
Adriee Munoz was credited with 16 set assists and Ortiz had 15 assists. Each had a service ace. Ortiz came up with 11 digs and Munoz had eight digs. Sarah Charbonneau led the team with 18 digs and Shook had seven digs.
Randi Billings delivered five kills and one solo block plus a block assist. She had five digs and Autumn Douglas had four digs. Douglas had one solo block and three kills. Ortiz and Cheyanne Miller had one kill each and Miller had two digs.
The Red Devils improved to 10-11 overall. Fort Scott Community College comes to Iola Wednesday in Jayhawk Conference/NJCAA Division II district play. Allen is 1-3 in conference and 1-4 in district while Fort Scott is 1-2 and 2-2 plus have a 15-6 overall mark.
The match starts at 6:30 p.m. in the ACC gym.
Red Devils handle Cottey College
