Volleyball Places Second At Eight-Team Marietta Classic
Led by freshmen Kelly McAllister and Becky Rohlfs, who were each
named to the all-tournament team, The College of Wooster volleyball squad
opened its second campaign under head coach Terri Mason in terrific
fashion, placing second at the eight-team Marietta Tournament held on Aug.
31-Sept. 1.
Wooster went unbeaten within its round-robin grouping, topping
Washington & Jefferson College in four, West Liberty State College in
three, and most notably, Allegheny College in five, and then reached the
title game in a thrilling five-game win over the hosts before settling for
runner-up.
Despite having at least three freshmen on the court at all times,
the young Scots beat Washington & Jefferson 23-30, 30-22, 30-19, 30-16, and
West Liberty State 30-23, 30-19, 30-26 in their season debut on Friday.
Saturday morning, Wooster came back from two games down to beat Allegheny
for the first time since 1998 by scores of 26-30, 14-30, 30-22, 30-23,
15-11.
The Scots opened bracket play with another stirring comeback, as
they upended Marietta College 28-30, 18-30, 30-21, 30-28, 16-14. After
playing 10 games already that day, Wooster ran out of gas against a fresh
Defiance College squad in the championship match, as Defiance prevailed
16-30, 33-31, 21-30, 29-31.
Statistically on the weekend, junior Erin Donnell, an
all-conference honoree a year ago, led the attack with 91 kills, while
McAllister, who posted 75 kills, had the top hitting percentage (.361).
Additionally, senior Jen Petkovsek and freshman Allison Kovacs tallied 48
and 34 kills, respectively. Setting up those kills were junior Beth Moore
and Rohlfs, who finished the tournament with 116 and 97 assists,
respectively.
Defensively, Donnell and McAllister shared top honors with 82 digs
apiece, followed ever so closely by Petkovsek's 81. It was a balanced
effort, though, as Rohlfs added 75, Moore totaled 66, and Abbey Harvey,
another member of the freshman class, posted 55 digs.
Petkovsek picked up right where she left off last fall, in terms of
blocking the ball. After leading the North Coast Athletic Conference and
being ranked nationally in that category in 2000, Petkovsek came through
with 31 total blocks on the weekend, 22 of which were the solo variety.
Also blocking well were Harvey and junior Kate Meyer, who compiled 17 and
13 total blocks, respectively.
The Scots will look to improve on their 4-1 record Tuesday night
(Sept. 4), when they travel to Malone College for a non-conference tilt,
starting at 7 p.m.
|