Wrapping up regular season play, Tabor College hammered Sterling (30-22, 30-24, 23-30, 30-14) in four games Tuesday and dispatched Southwestern (30-13, 30-16, 30-16) on Thursday.
Against Southwestern, the Bluejays roared back from a 2-0 deficit to take a 6-3 lead during Taylor Lawrence’s first stint at the service line in the first game.
Ashley Cohlmia got the kill to make it 11-6, then scored four quick points with her serve, prompting a timeout by the Moundbuilders. Cohlmia shrugged off the interlude and connected on an ace for 16-6, and pressed the margin to 18-7.
Cohlmia came around again to serve with a 28-12 lead, and placed another ace just inside the back line.
Southwestern held on long enough to get the serve back, but Jordan Crosson finished off the game with a kill at 30-13.
The Moundbuilders were more competitive in the second game, taking a 3-2 lead and knotting it at 4-4 and 5-5.
But a well-placed tip gave Tabor a 6-5 advantage that mushroomed after a kill by Lawrence brought Clancey Kelley to the service stripe with an 8-6 lead. Kelley forced a Southwestern timeout with an ace that gave Tabor a 14-6 advantage, and the Bluejays cruised to a 2-0 lead in the match.
The third game started with Tabor leading 4-1 after Audrey Schellenberg’s opening serve, and that margin grew to six points on Audra Atwell’s serve, then to nine on an adept cross-court kill by Lawrence.
Lawrence struck another sharp shot to make it 17-6, and Heather Witham made a block for a 19-6 lead.
Tabor outscored the Moundbuilders 11-10 the rest of the way, putting away the match and stamping a decisive win on their final outing of the regular season.
Witham finished with nine kills and no errors on 14 attacks for a rating of 64.3 percent. She also got in on five blocks—two solo—without an error against Southwestern.
Four Bluejays posted double-digit kill totals against Sterling: Lawrence led the way with 18, followed by Crosson (14), Cohlmia (10) and Carly Kroeker (10).
As a team, the Bluejays posted a 35.2 attack percentage.
Coming—Tabor faced Saint Mary in the first round of the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference’s post-season tournament at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Hillsboro.
A single-elimination format means the winner of Tuesday’s game advances to the semi-final round to be played at 7 p.m. Thursday at Bethany College in Lindsborg.
Thursday’s winner plays 7 p.m. Saturday at the highest remaining seed’s home court.
The highest seed is regular-season champion Kansas Wesleyan (17-1), followed by Bethany (15-3), Bethel (14-4), Tabor (12-6), Saint Mary (9-9) and Friends (8-10).
Write Comment
Write Comment
Please keep the topic of messages relevant to the subject of the article.
Personal verbal attacks will be deleted.
Please don't use comments to plug your web site. Such material will be removed.
Just ensure to *Refresh* your browser for a new security code to be displayed prior to clicking on the 'Send' button.
Keep in mind that the above process only applies if you simply entered the wrong security code.
