Allen Community College’s Red Devil volleyball team dropped an intense home match Friday against visiting Northeastern Oklahoma of Miami, Okla.
The Red Devils went to Ottawa on Saturday and went 1-1 in matches.
“It’s difficult to win when you play from behind all night. It was completely opposite from Wednesday where we felt like we were in control and just allowed them to come back,” said Jessica Peters, ACC head coach of the NEO match Friday.
NEO won the match 28-30, 27-25, 25-17, 25-18. Peters said the teams were in a point-for-point set to open the match. Allen won it on a kill by Sidney Keith.
Then the Norsemen got a quick seven-point run to open the second set and the Red Devils were trying to catch up.
Hayley Mertens led the Red Devils against NEO with 19 kills and three block assists at the net. She also had 22 digs and two ace serves. Keith supplied nine kills, one block assist, 10 digs and one ace serve.
Randi Billings put down seven kills and had three block assists. Kaitlyn Speer made two solo blocks and Sierra Morgison had two block assists.
Adriee Munoz was credited with 20 set assists and three ace serves. Jacqui Ortiz put up 19 set assists and had 16 digs. Sarah Charbonneau had 22 digs.
“We are going to work (Saturday) at Ottawa to put a stop to a negative trend,” Peters said Friday.
Allen made the statement its coach was looking for in the first match Saturday. The Red Devils rolled over Bethany College’s junior varsity 25-17, 25-17, 25-20.
“Working to earn most points throughout a match is the path to success that makes more sense to this team,” Peters said.
The Red Devils came out a bit flat against host Ottawa University’s junior varsity. Peters said Ottawa was effective at the net stopping most offensive options for the Red Devils.
Ottawa JV beat Allen 25-11, 25-19, 25-18.
“Overall, we are walking away feeling better about this loss compared to the others because we felt that today was about Allen and not individuals,” Peters said. “We won as a team and lost as a team.”
Mertens delivered 21 kills and had one solo block and one assisted block for the day. Morgison had 11 kills and two assisted blocks while Billings put down 10 kills, had one solo block and one assisted block.
