A determined Alma effort paid off in the end as the Scots recorded a five-game
(30-28, 27-30, 26-30, 30-27, 15-13) come-from-behind victory over Calvin
Wednesday night at the Calvin Fieldhouse to gain firm control of first place in
the MIAA race.
With the victory, Alma moved two victories ahead of Calvin and Kalamazoo in the
MIAA standings as the Scots improved to 8-0 in the MIAA and to 16-6 overall.
Calvin dipped to 14-6 overall and to 6-2 in the MIAA. The Knights are now tied
for second place with Kalamazoo. Alma's victory over Calvin Wednesday was
also important as it would give the Scots a tie-breaker edge over Calvin for
home-court advantage in the event of a tie for first place between the two
schools. Alma does not have a tie-breaker edge yet against Kalamazoo but will
host the Hornets later this month.
Alma's victory also snapped Calvin's 17-match MIAA win streak at the Calvin
Fieldhouse as the Scots became the first team since Hope defeated Calvin on
September 9, 2000, to hand the Knights a conference loss at home.
Using a dink-and-dunk attack, Alma secured a 30-28 win in game one only to see
Calvin reverse the momentum in games two and three with the Knights winning
30-27 and 30-26 to take a 2-1 lead in games.
In game four, the two teams battled to a 14-14 tie before Alma rolled off a 7-2
run to take a 21-16 lead. Alma would then build its lead to 27-21 and to 29-22
before the Knights mounted a comeback effort that just came up short. Calvin
rolled off five straight points to pull to within 29-27 but a service error
choked off the comeback and allowed the Scots to hang on for the win.
In game five, Calvin dug itself an early hole, falling behind 6-0. Calvin
fought back to within 8-5 but a 3-0 run fueled by a pair of Alma service aces
put the Scots up 11-5. Calvin countered with five unanswered points to creep to
within 11-10 but Alma picked up a point to go up 12-10. Calvin then tied the
game at 12-12, using a kill by sophomore Kara Kuipers (Unity Christian) to tie
the match. A Calvin service error put Alma up 13-12 with Kuipers coming right
back with another kill to tie the match at 13-13. Calvin would not score again
as a hitting error and a subsequent kill by Alma sophomore Kristin Judson
allowed the Scots to pull out its second five-game win of its 2002 MIAA
campaign.
Calvin was led in defeat by senior middle-hitter Melissa Pell (Fremont HS)) who
tallied 23 kills and five blocks while Kuipers racked up 18 kills, three blocks
and two aces. Sophomore Kathy Brenneman (North Muskegon HS) was next with 15
kills and eight digs while senior Cassie Christopher (Fruitport HS) collected 13
kills, three aces and 23 digs. Also picking up 23 digs for the Knights was
sophomore Kristin DeGroot (Tulare, CA) while junior Trisha Balkema (Highland,
IN) led the Knights with 31 digs. Senior setter Laura Tucker (Holland Christian
HS) added a career-high 71 assists along with 12 digs.
Kristin Judson led Alma with a superb all-around effort, compiling 21 kills, 22
digs and four service aces. Megan Cook also picked up 16 kills for the Scots
while setter Lindsey Baker was credited with 49 assists and 21 digs.
Both teams finished with eight service aces. Alma was charged with 12 service
errors while Calvin had 11. Calvin also committed 34 hitting errors and had an
attack percentage of .173 while Alma had 27 hitting errors and an attack
percentage of .167.
Calvin returns to action Friday night when it hosts Olivet at 6:30 p.m. in an
MIAA match and follows with a non-conference match against Mid-American Nazarene
immediately following.
