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RMC
overcomes slow start to overpower MSU-Northern
11-14-08
 LEWISTON, Idaho - The Rocky Mountain College women's
volleyball team knows it's not how you start, but how
you finish.
The
Battlin' Bears proved that in the opening round of the
Bank of Whitman Frontier Conference Tournament on Friday
by overcoming a 7-0 deficit in the first game to sweep
Montana State University-Northern 25-17, 25-17, 25-13 at
the Lewis-Clark State College Activity Center.
The
second-seeded Bears advance to the semifinal round on
Saturday where it will play the winner of the Great
Falls-Montana Tech match. Those two teams play later
Friday for a berth in the 1 p.m. semifinal.
Rocky
Mountain, 18-7 overall, shook off the sluggish start to
eventually tie the first game at 8-8 and kept rolling
during a 9-0 run for a 13-8 advantage.
"You
can't do that against a No. 1 seed, but I knew we would
come back," RMC coach Laurie Kelly said."We had a senior
who had a rough day in the first match, and I don't
think we played with enough emotion."
"That's been our story all year," MSU-Northern coach
Stephen Leggitt said after the Skylights finish the
season at 2-19. "They were up 8-3 and we blocked a ball
and it was in, but was called out. I didn't get upset
and the coaching staff didn't get upset, but it upset
the players and we never responded. We were up 7-0 and
I thought it would turn into a battle, but you can't
let a team back into it like we did."
RMC
dominated the rest of the match, especially at the net.
The Bears had a 14-6 advantage in blocks and hit .221
for the match, compared to minus-.027 for MSU-Northern.
"I
thought our serving was outstanding," Kelly said. "We
didn't miss a serve, which had them on the defensive."
Jessica Eliasson led the Bears with 11 kills, while
Katharina Hinrichsen added eight. Kristin Barott added
22 assists and 13 digs, while Eliasson had 5.5 blocks
and Jessica Overstreet added 3.5 blocks. Barott and
Annie Krise had two service aces apiece to help RMC
finish with five aces.
Brittany Baker led the Skylights with 14 digs and 2.5
blocks, while Montana Johnson had 23 digs and three
service aces.
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