Box Score By Brett VenHuizen
KENOSHA, WISC – The top-ranked Calvin Knights moved on to the third round of the NCAA III Tournament with a 3-1 victory over the Blue Jays of Elmhurst College. It took four sets with the scores of 25-22, 25-14, 25-27, 25-21, for the Knights to take this victory.
The Knights advance to play Carthage Saturday at 8pm EST.
The Knights (29-3) started off the match slowly as the Blue Jays took an early lead in the first set and held that lead almost throughout the whole game. About midway through the set the Knights took over the first game with a score of 25-22. "We started off a little slow but when we really got into rhythm and really started playing with a lot more confidence." Said Coach Warners.
In the second set it was all Knights. They had 16 kills with a .400 hitting percentage. They were firing on all cylinders after coming back to win the first and with the momentum on their side they took the second set rather easily from the Blue Jays.
The third set saw the Blue Jays come out with the intensity they did in the first and took a quick lead. The Knights rallied back however behind the serving of Maggie Kamp (Orland Park, IL/Chicago Christian HS) who gave the Knights four straight points to bring the Knights up 7-4. The match was back-and-forth till the end of the set where Calvin made a couple of costly service errors which led to the Elmhurst victory in extra points 27-25 to force a forth set.
The fourth set was very close as well but the Knights came up on top with a 25-21 victory. The defense of the Blue Jays seemed to bother the Calvin hitters forcing a lot of scrappy plays for the Knights back row.
Elmhurst (31-9) was a menace defensively for the Knights with eight total team blocks as it put a ton of pressure on Calvin's offense. "Their block was massive and really frustrated us as hitters. We did a good job of working around it but we can always do better." said Laura Danhoff (Willard, OH/Willard HS) who led the Knights with 17 kills. Maggie Kamp was right behind her with 16 kills and she also tacked on 16 digs. Senior Emily Crowe (Granger, IN/Mishawka Penn HS) added 10 kills from the middle as well.
The serving was also a key to this victory for the Knights they had nine service aces with only six errors. Also the Knights serve receive was on through out the entire match. Defensively Senior
Elise Biesboer (Elmhurst, IL/Timothy Christian HS) led Calvin with 23 digs. Freshman
Jenna Lodewyk (Villa Park, IL/Timothy Christian HS) had 53 assists and 11 digs.
After the match Coach Warners had high praise for the Elmhurst team and the way the Blue Jays played in the match. "Our program doesn't take for granted any wins and we are grateful to walk away with a win tonight especially in this region. It's going to be a battle tomorrow and we will have to be ready."
