Sage Harrington (5) of Catawba Valley Community College, a freshman who played prep volleyball at Alexander Central High, makes a play at the net in one of the Red Hawks’ matches on Friday in Charleston, W. Va. They play on Saturday with an opportunity to win and finish ninth in the national tournament./PHOTO BY CODY DALTON, CATAWBA VALLEY ATHLETICS
HobbsDailyReport.com
CHARLESTON, W. Va. – The Catawba Valley Community College women’s volleyball team has a chance at history on Saturday.
The 10th-seeded Red Hawks won twice on Friday at the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) tournament at the Charleston (W. Va.) Civic Center, earning a chance to finish ninth in the nation.
CVCC faces No. 13 seed Moraine Valley (31-7) — 3-2 winners against No. 9 North Dakota State College of Science (31-4) — in Saturday’s ninth-place match at 9 a.m.
On Friday, CVCC (35-10) downed Northern Virginia Community College and Lake-Sumter State College to advance, creating a chance to win three matches at the national tournament for the first time in program history.
Red Hawks head coach Shannon Hudson said the goal of winning three times in the tournament was generated by CVCC athletic director Nick Schroeder after a first-round loss on Thursday.
“That’s been our new goal,” Hudson said in a CVCC press release. “We are almost there. We get to play on Saturday, which is a huge accomplishment, especially for such a young group. I’m so proud of how they played together today (Friday).”
CVCC 3, NOVA 0
A balanced offensive attack against 15th-seeded NOVA Nighthawks helped CVCC win in the first consolation match of the tournament on Friday.
Freshmen middle hitter Emma Clark drove down a team-high eight kills match while Meredith Patterson and Siena Naotala each added seven kills.
CVCC also received 11 digs and four aces from Madi Bolch, 14 digs from libero Emily Williams and 14 assists each from setters Emilee Webber and Macy Pope.
CVCC 3, Lake-Sumter (Fla.) State 1
In the nightcap, the Red Hawks defeated Lake-Sumter College (Fla.), 3-1.
Siena Naotala, Clark and Patterson helped CVCC pull ahead 7-1 in the first set, and despite a late charge by the LakeHawks, the Red Hawks won 25-19.
After powering ahead early in set two and eventually holding on to win 25-22, the Red Hawks were in firm control of their second consolation match.
But Lake-Sumter State (16-14) roared back, taking a commanding 14-3 lead in the third set after some early mistakes by CVCC.
Despite falling behind early, the Red Hawks received a fortunate break though when a computer at the scorer’s table malfunctioned, forcing a short delay that allowed CVCC’s players and coaches to gather themselves.
“It gave us a chance to talk to the girls and kind of regroup,” Hudson said of the break. “We didn’t come back and win that (third) set, but we got really close and got the momentum that we needed going into the fourth set.”
CVCC trailed by two points for a majority of the fourth set before making a late run. Down 16-13, the Red Hawks won 12 of the final 14 points to win 25-18 to advance to Saturday’s ninth-place match.
Four Red Hawks tallied double-digit kills against Lake-Sumter State, including Patterson (12), Naotala (11), Clark (10) and Sage Harrington (10).
CVCC and Moraine Valley will meet for the third time in the national tournament. CVCC won 3-0 in a second-round consolation match in 2012 and Moraine Valley won 3-1 in a first-round consolation match in 2013.
“We saw them play just for a little bit today,” Hudson said of the Cyclones. “Moraine is a very consistent team. They don’t make many errors so we are going to have to play clean tomorrow and stay aggressive, but be really careful about the errors that we’re making. I think our girls can come out with a win.”
Grand Rapids 3, CVCC 0 (Thursday)
Seventh-seeded Grand Rapids beat the Red Hawks in the opening round, 25-21, 25-21 and 25-23.
Clark and Rachel Delcamp paced CVCC with 10 kills each.
The Red Hawks tried to fight off not only the Raiders (30-6) in set one, but also some nerves, which led to five missed serves. Grand Rapids was able to capitalize to take a competitive back-and-forth first set.
In set two, CVCC led Grand Rapids 17-14, but the Raiders utilized a short serve and stout play in the middle to win 10 of the next 12 points and seize control late.
A kill by Delcamp helped pull CVCC within 24-23 late in the third set, but another kill — this time by the Raiders’ Autumn Severn — snuffed out any potential for a Red Hawks rally.