INDEPENDENCE — Like it did a week earlier in their season opener, Allen Community College’s Red Devil volleyball squad started off like gangbusters.
Unlike a week ago, in a straight set loss to Butler, Allen was able to maintain its strong play throughout.
The resulting 25-13, 25-23, 25-16 victory evens the Red Devils’ record at 1-1 on the young season.
“It was a great conference win for Allen and provided us with a win that might hold weight later in the season for regional rankings,” ACC head coach Jessica Peters said.
Allen’s quick start was keyed by the squad’s blocking front row and a pair of service runs by defensive specialist Halley Scott. Allen reeled off seven straight points in her first serve, then eight more her second time around.
The Red Devils blitzed their way to a 24-10 lead. A series of errors allowed Independence to reel off three straight points before Allen closed out the set.
Things didn’t go as smoothly in the second set.
“This was the match that Allen chose to play at the level of our opponent,” Peters said. “We slowed down altogether, offensively and defensively. We allowed balls to fall that we could have gotten to, and we looked sloppy.”
Even though Allen eked out a 25-23 win in the second set, Peters issued a challenge to her players.
“Although we can walk away from a set like this early in our season, we must take this challenge home and improve upon it,” Peters said, “which we did.”
Allen found its footing again in the third set, particularly along the front line.
“We doubled our kills in the third set, along with finding our blocks again. Defense remained the strength again for us tonight, not letting much fall without being right there with it, and hustling after everything.”
Sidney Keith led the way with seven kills and 13 digs, while scoring 10.5 points. Danielle Goodman and Lizzy Huey added four kills each. Adriee Munoz had 13 set assists; Jessi Sennett nine. Scott wound up with five ace serves and 11 digs to go with five points. Huey scored six points.
Allen is in Highland Friday and Saturday for a tournament before returning to Iola Wednesday for the squad’s home opener against Highland.

Patience was more than virtuous for Allen Community College’s women Wednesday afternoon.
It was down right victorious.
After impatience cost the Red Devils on several scoring opportunities in the first half of their soccer home opener against Hesston, Allen righted its ship after intermission with some familiar names leading the way.
Freshman Lexi Godlove scored off an assist from teammate Kyleigh Rowe in the 66th minute, “which really seemed to settle things down for us,” Red Devil head coach Jeremy McGinnis said.
Allen sealed the win about 10 minutes later, when Carleigh Konrade scored from point-blank range to give the Red Devils the 2-0 victory.
The win pushes Allen’s record to 2-1 on the season, already equaling the Red Devils’ victory output from a year ago.
The key, McGinnis said, was patience.
“The girls got a little frustrated in the first half, and I probably did, too,” McGinnis said. “We played everything to their back line, but we didn’t do a good job of playing the ball through channels. We could get it to their back line, but we couldn’t get it through.”
Not so coincidentally, Allen’s early scoring opportunities dried up in the first half when freshman outfielder Kalynn Gallarde exited with a head injury midway through the period.
She returned about midway through the second half, with Allen scuffling on offense.
“Kalynn does a great job of taking her time and seeing what we need to do with the ball, and getting it there,” McGinnis said.
Minutes after her return, Allen’s offense began to click. Rowe fed Godlove with a nifty pass that Godlove punched in past a diving Hesston goalkeeper.
The Red Devil defense remained stout from there, preventing Hesston from getting any sort of scoring opportunities in the second half, particularly after Konrade’s shot found the net with just over 15 minutes remaining.
“Our back line did a tremendous job in earning our first shutout of the season,” McGinnis said, pointing out the efforts of forward Kaya Pelen, “who came up big for us in the last 15 minutes in helping control the game. And Keelie (Arbuckle) was solid in goal again.”
The Red Devils are at Kansas City, Kan., Saturday and at Maple Woods next Thursday.

PLEASANTON — Marmaton Valley High’s volleyball team opened 2013 Saturday with a 3-2 mark at the Three Rivers League Tournament, good for fourth place overall.
The Crest High Lady Lancers weren’t as fortunate, going 0-4 on the day.
The Wildcats defeated Northeast-Arma, Oswego and Crest in straight sets, while falling in straight sets to Uniontown and St. Paul.
A quartet of Wildcats led the way in Marmaton Valley’s 25-16, 25-10 over Northeast. Kaitlin Ensminger had six points and four kills, Mackenzie Tynon pounded down seven kills and Emily Meiwes and Kaysha Elmenhorst had eight and six points, respectively.
In the 25-15, 25-14 loss to Uniontown, Tynon had eight kills.
The Wildcats defeated Crest 25-15, 25-18, behind Meiwes’ eight points, Ensminger’s six points and Ashlynn PInkerton’s four kills.
Marmaton Valley won a nail-biter over Oswego, 25-22, 29-27. Pinkerton had 13 points, followed Elmenhorst with nine. Ensminger had seven kills, while Tapanga Turner and Tynon delivered four kills each.
Ensminger had six points for the Wildcats in their 25-8, 25-16 loss to St. Paul.

DESPITE not winning a match, Crest still offered several reasons for hope, head coach Abigail Hermreck said.
The Lady Lancers took Northeast-Arma to three sets before falling 25-16, 19-25, 25-20.
“Everyone was moving and communicating” in the match, Hermreck said. “We had a lot of hustle plays and intensity.”
In addition to the loss to Marmaton Valley, Crest fell 25-10, 25-9 to Uniontown and 25-19, 25-17 to Oswego.
“We competed with all of the teams we played in spurts,” Hermreck said. “Our serve receive hurt us a lot and we did not utilize our hitters.
“I know the girls want everything to come together right away, but it will take some time,” Hermreck continued. “We are working hard to move forward, and even though we didn’t get a win on Saturday, I am seeing a ton of positives happening. We will continue to work hard at practice on the little things that we can control.
Freshman Miranda Golden had eight kills and senior Emily Frank had seven kills and served 96 percent from the line. Laurel Godderz had a 90 percent serve mark.

CREST AND Marmaton Valley also were in Madison Tuesday to open regular season play.
The Wildcats improved to 5-3 overall by going 2-1 on the night, falling to host Madison in three sets, 21-25, 25-17, 25-23, then sweeping past Hartford, 25-20, 25-21, and Crest, 25-19, 25-16.
Tynon, Ensminger and Elmenhorst each had eight points against Madison. Tynon and Ensminger had nine and five kills, respectively.
Against Hartford, Turner and Elmenhorst led the way with six points each. Tynon had six kills, Ensminger five.
Against Crest, Elmenhorst had nine points and Turner six. Ensminger, Turner and Tynon each had three kills.

CREST dropped two other matches, falling 25-9, 26-24 to Hartford and  25-7, 25-17 to Madison.
Hermreck praised Crest’s efforts in its second game against Hartford.
“It was an exciting match,” she said. “The girls were fired up and began to put plays together.” Freshmen Miranda Golden and Laurel Godderz each had ace serves late in the match.
The Lady Lancers were tentative in the start of their match against Madison, although the second game was an improvement, Hermreck said.
“We played tough against Moran,” she continued. Madison Covey had an ace serve against the Wildcats.
Crest’s leading servers on the night were Tiffany Jackman, who was 100 percent on her serve attempts, Covey, junior libero, who was at 90 percent, senior middle Emily Frank, 90 percent and three aces, and freshman setter Karlee Hammond, at 89 percent.
Crest resumes play Tuesday at St. Paul. The Wildcat junior varsity is at Yates Center Monday. The varsity squad is at Yates Center Tuesday.

Iola High volleyball player Alexis Heslop, above, serves against Parsons in the ninth-graders’ season opener at Chanute Tuesday. At right, Iola’s Sydney Wade goes up for a kill attempt against the Vikings, while Toni Macha, left,  goes in for a dig. The Fillies defeated Parsons, 25-20, 25-21, but dropped their other two matches against host Chanute and Labette County.  Statistics were unavailable by press time, nor were results from the Iola junior varsity squad, which traveled to Fort Scott. The matches start a busy schedule for the Fillies. The varsity opens its season at home Thursday against Prairie View and Fort Scott before heading to Central Heights Saturday. The JV squad will host a tournament Saturday.