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'Runners exorcise demons vs Lopers, take conference title
By Eric Lansing
lansing@mscd.edu

Photo courtesy of RMAC The volleyball team poses for a picture with the RMAC tournament championship trophy after defeating Mesa State 3-2 in Silver City, N.M. It was the Roadrunners’ fourth conference title since 2001.

After a come-from-behind win over Fort Lewis in the first round of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament, Metro volleyball was eyeing their arch nemesis, Nebraska-Kearney, as their possible second-round opponent.

Metro’s volleyball team rallied from a two-game-to-one deficit to defeat Fort Lewis 3-2 in the first round of the RMAC Tournament.

It was on to the second round against the mighty Lopers, who have given Metro nothing but problems this season, when the ’Runners were to exact their revenge.

The ’Runners used that built-up frustration to bring a sweep of their own over the Lopers in an amazing upset that not only advanced the Roadrunners to the RMAC Tournament title game, but possibly punched their ticket stub for the NCAA Tournament. Metro won by scores of 30-25, 30-27 and 30-18 on Nov. 3 in Silver City, N.M.

“It feels really good, and it was long overdue,” outside hitter Stefanie Allison said. “I didn’t think (the Lopers) were anything special this year. I think it was more of a mental battle for us, and we just proved to ourselves that we could do it.”

“It feels really amazing,” said outside hitter Julie Green, who beat Kearney for the first time in her career. “I didn’t think I would be as excited as I thought I would be, but it was very exciting. Almost the joy of my life.”

Green had a game-high 14 kills along with Allison’s 13 kills. Middle blocker Sheena Bohannon had 12 kills of her own and produced a .455 kill percentage.

Game one was a thriller as both teams battled back and forth with 12 ties and 14 lead changes. Metro put up a .234 kill percentage to the Lopers’ .143 after the 7-2 run they went on to take game one 30-25.

After the ’Runners squeezed out a 30-27 victory in game two, they took early control of the Lopers in game three by gaining an eight-point advantage at 16-8 and never looked back with a 30-18 win. The ’Runners hit an astonishing .545 kill percentage, while Kearney only managed eight kills on 30 attempts and registered a .067 kill percentage.

“We played Kearney well in all the other matches with them, but we just did a lot of things to shoot ourselves in the foot,” head coach Debbie Hendricks said. “It was important to clean up the unnecessary mistakes and the number of free points we were giving them.”

The Roadrunners’ RMAC Tournament title run concluded with a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Mesa State on Nov. 4 in Silver City. The win gave the ’Runners the RMAC Tournament championship and a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

With Metro down 2-1, the ’Runners needed a spark in order to stay in the match, and they got it from Allison, who had nine of her game-high 24 kills in the fourth game. Allison had a .254 kill percentage and 14 digs in the match and won Most Valuable Player in the RMAC Tournament.

“I personally have never lost to Mesa State,” Allison said. “I wasn’t about to lose to Mesa State in the finals. I wasn’t ready to go home, and I wasn’t ready to get on the bus. The MVP was cool, but it will be a whole lot cooler if we win a bigger accomplishment, as in the national championship.”

Game five has been no stranger to the Roadrunners, as they have played in nine five-game matches and have a record of 6-3, including 4-1 since October.

Green says the experience of playing in five-game matches brought a ton of experience to the tournament. She added that it seems her team plays poorly in the third and fourth games when they play five, but seems to catch fire once the fifth game arrives.

The Mavericks jumped out to a 5-0 lead before Metro called a timeout to slow down their opponents’ momentum. The ’Runners fought back to a 6-6 tie with three kills by Green and one by Bohannon. After defensive specialist Amy Watanabe made a service error to allow the Mavericks to tie the game at eight, Metro used a 7-3 run to finish the game and win their first RMAC Tournament title since 2003.

The focus now turns to the NCAA Tournament, where No. 2 seed Metro will play No. 7 seed Fort Lewis for the third time this season in the opening round on Nov. 9 in Canyon, Texas. Metro split with the Skyhawks, losing in the regular season and defeating Fort Lewis in the RMAC Tournament. If Metro advances, they will play the winner of the No. 3 Mesa State and No. 6 Nebraska-Kearney matchup on Nov. 10.

“It’s going to be the same level of competition,” Hendricks said regarding playing the same teams they played in the RMAC Tournament. “If we can be successful this past weekend against that level of competition, we will be successful this weekend.”

“I think (the team is) really focused, and we will make a run at it,” she added.