EL DORADO — Going 2-2 in the opening weekend of the 2010 season has Allen County Community College head volleyball coach Jessica Peters looking forward to the rest of the season.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” Peters said after the Red Devils played in the Butler Community College Tournament over the weekend.
“We saw a lot of positive moments throughout our matches and we discovered things we need to improve upon.”
The Red Devils host Friends tonight at 6:30. Then they open Jayhawk Eastern Division play at home Wednesday against Kansas City, Kan., starting at 6:30 p.m.
Allen County hosts an annual invitational tournament but this year things changed. Instead of a tournament held at the Iola High School, it will be a triangular held at ACCC.
Allen County plays Coffeyville at noon. Coffeyville plays Northeastern Oklahoma at 2 p.m. then Allen County takes on NEO at 4 p.m.
Allen County started strong with a 28-26 first game win over Coffeyville. Coffeyville came back to win two close games, 25-21, 25-23 and took game four 25-15.
Against Coffeyville, Nicole Rockhold had 16 kills followed by Allison Jenicke with seven kills and Andrea Miller with five. Erika Mack was credited with 39 set assists while Karlee Bobbitt had 26 assists and Casey Droddy had 21.
The Red Devils regrouped and ended Friday on a strong note. They beat Independence 25-18, 25-21, 25-20.
Peters said Allen County’s win was keyed by aggressive serving from Nicole Reed with four aces and Bobbitt with three aces. Rockhold delivered 15 kills and had two solo blocks. Miller had nine kills.
Droddy was credited with 31 set assists followed by Bobbitt with 24. Jenicke had four assisted blocks and Rockhold had three block assists.
Allen County took on host Butler to open play on Saturday. The teams battled in four close games.
Butler was able to win 25-20, 25-27, 30-28, 25-19.
“This was an unbelievable match. Butler returns a lot of players and runs a quick offense. It was a challenge for us but the girls adjusted to Butler’s offense and worked hard the whole match,” Peter said.
Rockhold led the charge with 23 kills at the net plus served three aces. She also came up with 13 digs. Jenicke had 10 kills and one solo block. Miller and Makhala Giardina each had a solo block.
Mack had 25 set assists and Bobbitt had 14 assists. Jenicke served four aces while Reed and Morgan Scott each had two ace serves.
Bobbitt and Giardina had one ace each. Reed had 11 digs and Miller had three block assists and Mack had two block assists.
Allen County faced a scrappy and slower-paced Independence team to end the competition. The Red Devils won 25-19, 26-24, 25-12.
“The challenge of this match was playing at the same level as we did against Butler. It was tough and we began depending on Labette to make errors,” Peter said. “In the third game we took charge.”
Mack provided 12 set assists while Bobbitt had nine and Droddy had eight. Bobbitt served three aces and Rockhold had two. Reed served one ace.
Defensively, Rockhold had 18 digs and Scott had 12. Mack and Jenicke each had eight digs.
At the net, Rockhold delivered 13 kills, one solo block and two assisted blocks. Jenicke had 10 kills one solo block and two assisted blocks. Miller downed seven kills, put up two solo blocks and had two block assists. Mack had two block assists.
Red Devil volleyball tips off 2010 season
