BLINN VOLLEYBALL GETS TWO MORE WINS AT KRUSE CLASSIC
Story by Joe Alberico, Blinn College Sports Information
The 20th-ranked Blinn College volleyball team lost its first set of a long day of action Friday at the Kruse Kickoff Classic.
From there, the Buccaneers regrouped and dominated their competition en route to a four-set victory over Western Texas College and a sweep of Collin College at the Kruse Center in Brenham, Texas.
Blinn prevailed 23-25, 25-13, 25-11, 25-11 over the Westerners before ending day two of the Classic with a 25-11, 25-11, 25-9 triumph over the Cougars.
The Bucs are now 9-0 on the year.
“I felt good about today,” Bucs head coach Gregg Whitis said. “I like what we did against Western Texas. Our kids are gritty, and they fought in that first set, and even though they didn’t get the win there, we earned some momentum back late in that set without making subs and then came back in the second, third, and fourth and controlled the match. Then that carried over into our match against Collin.”
Whitis started freshman middle blockers Haley Fojtik and Kaylie McKinney to begin the match with the Westerners, a move Whitis said was made to get some new looks at a pair of players who have worked hard in practice to earn playing time. He said both players made positive strides in the opening set, but he opted to return to his regular rotations to give his team a chance to get back on track.
“After losing the first set to Western, I think we came out of the huddle with the realization that we can’t keep taking things lightly in the opening sets of matches anymore,” sophomore hitter Olivia Stringer said. “We’re a good team and that just can’t happen. We’re really big on a ‘next’ mentality regardless of what just happened, and I think that mindset helped us get going again.”
Against the Westerners, Stringer had a team-high 17 kills. Sophomore hitter Kaliko Schilling added 10 and freshman hitter Annika Brooks tacked on nine.
Sophomore and freshman servers Leah Hoss and Camden Bizot dished out 20 and 18 set assists, respectively.
Sophomore middle blocker Jana Cetkovic had three of Blinn’s nine service aces.
On the defensive end, Stringer tallied a team-best 13 digs and freshman defensive specialist/libero Zoey Montgomery added 12.
At the net, sophomore middle blocker Karolina Karabasz and sophomore hitter Shiloh Jones had five block assists apiece, while Cetkovic chipped in two solo blocks.
Against Collin, Stringer said the Bucs took an “all gas, no brakes” approach to the match, and it showed.
Blinn trailed just four times – all in the early moments of the first set – before clamping down on the Cougars.
Whitis was able to empty his bench in the final set.
“We went into the locker room after the Western Texas match and coach Whitis talked about sticking together as a team and as a family,” Montgomery explained. “I thought that hit home and we took it to heart. When we took the court again to face Collin, we were locked in and focused.”
Blinn’s offense was evenly distributed against the Cougars, with Stringer, Schilling, and Brooks knocking down six kills apiece. Cetkovic added four. Hoss led her team with 16 assists.
A big part of Blinn’s success against Collin stemmed from a series of big runs at the service line. Schilling did her part with a robust eight aces.
Freshman defensive specialist/setter Jessa Frosch ended the match with an ace.
“We served it really well,” Whitis added. “We had big runs in every set that allowed us to break away. We work a lot on serving and where we serve and how we serve it there, and it was good to see that pay off.”
Montgomery led the Bucs’ floor defense with eight digs, followed by six from Schilling. At the net, Cetkovic had two solo blocks and Karabasz and Jones had four and three assists, respectively.
Blinn concludes the Classic on Saturday with a pair of big matches against perennial contenders New Mexico Junior College and No. 19 Odessa College at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.