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Volleyball team gains steam second day of tourney
Roadrunner women bounce back after first day's disaster
By Pablo Cruz
pcruz1@mscd.edu

Photo by Chuck Iversen • civerse1@mscd.edu Metro’s Kelley Angel (#5) and Stefanie Allison (far right) team up to block Washburn’s Carolyn Raynes on Sept. 1 at the Colorado Premier Challenge hosted at the Auraria Event Center. The ‘Runners lost both games the first day of the tournament but came back for a pair of wins to take the Bronze division title on Sept 2. Metro co-hosted the tournament with Regis University.

The Metro volleyball team split a set of four games at the Colorado Premier Challenge Sept. 1 and 2 at the Auraria Event Center. The Roadrunners lost their first two games in front of a sparse crowd Friday night, but bounced back for a pair of wins on Saturday.

The tournament was the second in two weeks for Metro, which is preparing for Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play to begin Sept. 8.

“The nice thing about the first two weekends is most of these matches don’t count for regional and they certainly don’t count as far as standing,” head coach Debbie Hendricks said. “So it gives you the opportunity to work out some of the kinks and get a little chemistry going. We feel that we’re getting better every time we play.”

That sentiment rang true for the ’Runners’ weekend. Metro began the tournament by losing a heartbreaker to No. 20-ranked Abilene Christian in five sets. After winning the first and third sets, the Roadrunners were poised to upset the Wildcats, but shaky serving and a couple of key unforced errors caused Metro to collapse to a 31-29 loss. The Wildcats were able to continue their momentum by winning the final set 15-12.

“Against Abilene Christian we had an opportunity to win the match,” Hendricks said. “I don’t know that we had the confidence and I know we didn’t execute to win.”

Outside hitter Stefanie Allison came up big for the ’Runners on both the offensive and the defensive, leading the team in kills (20) and defensive digs (17).

Keeping the hopes high in the second game, the Roadrunners kept the fans of both teams hinged on the high-pace action on the court.

Though not as close as the previous game against Abilene Christian, the women still stuck with Washburn. Outside hitter Julie Green tallied 12 kills and middle blocker Sheena Bohannon and Allison added 11 each. Bri Ostler pulled out 19 digs on defense. Despite their efforts against Washburn, Metro suffered their second tough defeat that day.

When all was said and done at the end of the first day of the tournament, the outlook for the Roadrunners was dismal at best.

“We had good momentum but just didn’t finish,” said right sider Danielle St. Pierre of the losses.
The following day, however, the ’Runners came back and won the remaining two matches of the tournament, winning the bronze section of the tournament.

Starting off the second day of the competition early, the ’Runners showed no signs of defeat in their match against Mesa State, winning comfortably in three sets, 30-28, 32-30, 30-24. Once again proving the strength of Metro’s defense, Ostler scooped a match-high 28 digs, while the ’Runners backcourt held the reeling Mavericks to a .054 hitting percentage in the first set and a .099 average overall. Allison added 21 digs and racked 14 kills in the quick match, while Bohannon blocked five Maverick attacks.

Keeping their momentum alive in the final match of the weekend, the Roadrunners played a full set against Augustana (30-22, 32-20, 21-30, 26-30), grabbing the final set (15-10) for the win. Keeping the Roadrunners on their toes, Augustana came back from a 0-2 deficit to win the third and fourth games, forcing Metro to a five-set frenzy. Raising the bar of offensive performance, Allison had a match-high 24 kills, with the rest of the team’s numbers collectively higher than any other match that weekend. Allison was named the RMAC Player of the Week on Sept. 5.

The comeback proved the ’Runners’ ability to keep their spirits and confidence high in the wake of a bad day.

“We came in believing we could win both of these matches and it definitely showed,” Hendricks said. “When we had opportunities to win games. I don’t know we had the confidence and I know we didn’t execute to win. I think there were situations where we played not to lose.”

Looking toward the future, Hendricks felt that the team needed “to continue to gain confidence and reduce the number of errors we’re making,” and that her ’Runners were doing so with each game played.

Metro (3-4) begins its regular season at the Auraria Event Center against conference newcomers Western New Mexico Sept. 8 at 2:30 p.m. and host Fort Lewis at 7:30 p.m. The ’Runners face a second double-header Sept. 9, hosting Mesa State and Colorado State-Pueblo at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. respectively.