NO. 2 BLINN VOLLEYBALL FIGHTS PAST LEE COLLEGE IN REGULAR SEASON FINALE

Buccaneers enter Region XIV Tournament on 34-match winning streak

No. 2 Blinn College volleyball capped its regular season with a 18,25, 25-16, 25-11, 25-17 Region XIV victory over Lee College on Sophomore Night on Thursday at the Kruse Center in Brenham.
Blinn (35-1, 16-0 Region XIV) has now won 34 straight matches dating back to Aug. 21.
The Buccaneers will now play their next match on Friday, Nov. 6 at the Region XIV Tournament at Lee College in Baytown, Texas. Their opponent has yet to be determined.
Thursday’s match had the desired finish for Blinn despite getting off to the wrong start.
Lee (21-17, 5-11) gave the Buccaneers all they could handle in the first set as the hosts struggled with blocking assignments while working through some offensive kinks.
Sophomore Ashley Taylor also suggested that the emotions from the pre-game Sophomore Night festivities may have temporarily drained Blinn.

“(Head coach Terry Gamble said) we came out flat, and I think we came out flat because there was a sense of no emotion,” Taylor said. “I don’t think we’re a team that can be successful without emotion, so I think our shift of emotion we saw from not only ourselves but the fans in the stands – we started getting some people involved which brought the energy – we shifted that energy, we got things going and started doing more thing correctly and that’s how we came out on top tonight.”
Taylor was at the core of Blinn’s momentum swing, as each moment of Buccaneer success, be it a successful block or hit, was met with thunderous stomps and fist pumps from the sophomore middle blocker.
Blinn raced out to a comfortable lead in the second set before fending off a game Rebels team, cruised in the third set, and gutted out the match-clincher in the fourth.
Sophomore Charde Van Zandt paced Blinn with 17 kills, sophomore Jayde Shelton added 11, sophomore Reagan Casey tallied seven and Taylor finished with six.
First-year setter Lina Ellila finished with 31 set assists. Ellila and sophomore libero Lixai Perez served up two service aces.

Defensively, Perez and fellow sophomore Guilia Hortelan had eight and seven digs, respectively. Taylor had a team-best six block assists to go with a team-best one solo block.
Shelton said Thursday’s result was a satisfying conclusion to a great regular season but insisted the work has just begun for the Buccaneers.
“It feels amazing, it really does, but we know that our job isn’t done,” Shelton said. “Everybody is coming for us, but ya’ll may be coming for us, but we’re coming or ya’ll, too. We’ve worked so hard to get to 16-0, that when we get to regionals, you are not going to take that away from us.
“We’re treating everybody from here on out like they’re the number one team in the country, and we’re going to play at that level and with that mindset every time we take the court.”
Blinn has yet to secure an at-large bid for the national tournament, which will be played Nov. 18-21 at the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, Kansas. Gamble, in his fourth season leading the Buccaneers, said that the fact a berth in the national tournament is not a given, next week’s tournament still serves as the ultimate proving ground for his talented ballclub.

“Whatever we do from here on out is just a bonus … this is just a great group of young ladies,” Gamble said. “But now, I think we’re everybody’s big game, so we’re going to start from square one and we’re going to play next Friday morning at 9 a.m., and whoever it is, I think we’ll be ready to go.”

Story Courtesy of:

Joe Alberico
Blinn Sports Information Specialist