TC Gears for post-season play

Written by Andrew Ottoson Wednesday, 07 November 2007 10:41

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).