Following Wednesday’s win against Labette County Community College, the Allen Community College Red Devils have a full head of steam for next week’s game against the nation’s top-ranked Cowley County Community College Cougars.
The Red Devils (18-11, 5-3) celebrated sophomore night in grand fashion after pulling away in the fifth set against the Lady Cardinals and in the process snapping a three-game losing streak.
“The girls adapted and did what they needed to do,” Allen coach Maria Aikens said. “They realized, ‘Hey, we need to clean some stuff up.’ Labette is good and they did a really good job of improving their program.”
After taking the first two sets 25-23 and 25-21, Allen hoped to celebrate sophomore night a little early. Labette had other plans as they took the third in extra sets 26-24, then the fourth set 25-23. The Red Devils regained their footing in the fifth, taking the match with a game-winning spike by freshman outside hitter Baylee Belt.
“This was the first night we’ve had some of our girls back in five games,” Aikens said. “Being able to have everybody back and getting back into the groove of things is a little bit of an adjustment, but we fought hard. We went to five sets and once we got the ball down, and fixed the little errors, we got it done.”
Although hitting the game-winner, Belt was not the Red Devils’ biggest arm. In fact, Belt’s 12 kills were second to freshman outside hitter Alissa Hadzic’s team-leading 14, and two kills ahead of freshman outside hitter Lauren Brummet’s 10. Sophomore middle hitter Chloe Curl had a team-leading four aces, but her biggest contribution may have been at the net with a team-leading three blocks.
“When we take the middle out of the system, it makes my job so much easier,” Curl said. “I can just go pin to pin. Being able to stop them on the outside, and my right side lining me up, was amazing. Credit to everyone. I just had to close.”
Sophomore libero Audrey Peek had a team-leading 43 digs, followed by Belt with 19. One player flying under the radar Wednesday was sophomore defensive specialist Camila Afonso of Brazil. She had 15 digs but her 25 assists means she contributed to a third of Allen’s points scored.
“We have really good players and sometimes we just need to believe in ourselves and have fun,” Afonso said.
“As an international student, I’m happy to be a part of this and play for this team. This is my last home game and I’m not going to be back next semester. There are a lot of emotions right now, and I’m so happy.”
With the win, the Red Devils are tied for third in the Jayhawk Conference with Neosho and Highland. A victory over Cowley (27-4, 7-1) would set up a three-way tie for second place after Kansas City Kansas Community College upsetting Cowley in a five-set thriller Wednesday. However, Allen would own the tiebreaker in head-to-head competition with their previous upset of Johnson County earlier this season.
“Hopefully this translates to the postseason,” Aikens said. “We’ll take this as a learning lesson. We’ll finish strong against Cowley, give them a good fight, and be ready for the postseason.”
