In a rally sport, sometimes teams just have to wait until their opponent makes a mistake.
The Hope College volleyball team was able to do that in a couple of pivotal spots late in the second set and it led to a 3-1 win over Southern Virginia in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament on Thursday, Nov. 20, at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. Hope won 25-21, 20-25, 26-24, 25-22.
After splitting the first two sets, Hope trailed several times late in the third set, but found a way to tie the score at 22, 23 and 24, sending it to extra points.
That pressure Hope brought paid off as two Southern Virginia errors gave the Flying Dutch a 26-24 win in the third and a 2-1 lead in the match.
Hope hit just .119 in the second set but bounced back to hit .257 in the third.
“We knew they were a good blocking team and we definitely added to their stats on that one. They kept fighting back,” Hope coach Becky Schmidt said. “We are really excited to get through that match. It is a match that we got better from. I could see our team improving as the match went on.
“Any time your back is against the wall, and you have to fight through, you are going to learn more about yourself and about your teammates.”
In the fourth, Hope led early, but Southern Virginia rallied to tie it at 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 before Brooke Fox put down a kill to give Hope a 21-19 lead.
Regional player of the year Lauren Lee dumped a kill in the middle of the court to set up match point and Fox ended the match with a kill for a 25-22 set win.
Lee is looking like an All-American setter once again as she continues to grow.
“I have grown in my offensive ability in my front row. When I was a freshman, I had it drilled into my head that I had to set my hitters. Over the course of the years, I started working on my vertical and started working on my dumps and offensive capabilities,” Lee said.
Fox, Olivia Wyma and Kamryn Burbridge led Hope with 12 kills apiece. Ella Contant had six, while Kiera Morrison and Kate Luurtsema each had five.
“I had so much trust in my team for coverage,” Burbridge said. “(I leaned on that).”
Lee dished out 40 assists and had 10 digs. Kate Oates had 19 digs, Amelia Gagnon had 14, while Fox and Tess Herendeen each added nine.
“This team has someone else always capable of getting hot. We don’t always know who that will be. Brooke Fox did that tonight,” Schmidt said.
Calvin advances to second round
The Calvin volleyball team defeated Hanover 25-21, 25-23, 25-15 on Thursday, Nov. 20, in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament at Illinois Wesleyan.
Aerin Baker (Saugatuck) led the Knights (26-3) with 11 kills, hitting .308. Six kills came in the first set. Emma Ekblow and Sarah Bradley each added eight kills.
Baker and Ekblow were named first-team all-region.
Tryna Vander Zwaag (Holland Christian), the MIAA Defensive Player of the Year, had 16 digs.
No. 19 Calvin will face No. 13 Wisconsin-Whitewater on Friday in the second round. Whitewater swept Coe in the first round.
Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Hope volleyball surges to win in NCAA tourney opener, Calvin too
Reporting by Dan D’Addona, Holland Sentinel / The Holland Sentinel
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