Allen Community College’s volleyball team picked an opportunity to kick its level of play up a notch.
The Red Devils, in the midst of their busiest stretch of the 2013 season, came back with a flourish Monday evening after dropping the second of the four-game match to visiting Northeastern Oklahoma, and falling behind briefly to start the third.
“We talked about what doing that was effective,” Red Devil head coach Jessica Peters said. “We knew we needed to quit waiting for them to give us points and start earning points for ourselves.”
Allen overcame an early 8-3 deficit in the third game, and strung together four straight points later on to win, 25-19.
The momentum built from there as the Red Devils put the finishing touches on their 25-22, 17-25, 25-19, 25-15 triumph.
The victory lifts the Red Devils to 5-7 on the season. More importantly, “we’re starting to realize the potential that Coach (Whitney Falkenstien) and I know we have,” Peters said.
The match featured a number of momentum swings.
Northeastern took advantage of several ACC errors early on to keep the first game close until Allen’s Lizzy Huey served for eight straight points to give ACC control.
The upper hand was short lived. The visiting Norse jumped out in front quickly and held that advantage to win the second game, and looked to do the same to start the third
Peters called timeout, which ended the slide. A Danielle Goodman kill, coupled with an NEO error was part of a 13-8 Red Devil run to tie the game at 16-16.
Allen’s hitters Sidney Keith, Huey, Sarah Webb and Goodman all had kills in the subsequent 6-2 run to put ACC on top for good.
Webb punched in the kill at game point.
Munoz, designated as the team’s only setter in its new 5-1 lineup, spearheaded a six-point run to start the fourth and final game. Allen forced NEO to use its two allotted timeouts by the time the score reached 11-4.
Allen led 17-8 when the Norse strung together six straight points, but it was too little, too late.
The game ended on a bright note for both teams. Allen and NEO each earned points off a pair of extended rallies, filled with a number of spectacular saves, before Goodman smacked home the match winner.
“All of our hitters did well. Danielle has been our most consistent hitter, and Sarah Webb had a couple of nice kills,” Peters said. “But Sidney Keith started things for us, Sidney Keith pushed us in the middle, and Sidney Keith finished it for us.”
Keith led the way with 14 kills, followed by Goodman with 10, Huey with eight, Andonae Magdzia with four, Munoz with three and Webb with two.
Munoz racked up 34 assists with two aces. Huey had three aces.
Allen returns home Wednesday to take on Hesston in a Region VI contest. After that, ACC hosts the Allen Invitational Friday and Saturday at Riverside Park before hosting Longview next Monday.
Red Devils triumph over NEO
