Top test for home opener

Southwestern Community College volleyball welcomed NJCAA Div. II 11th-ranked Iowa Central into its gym for its regular season home opener, falling in straight sets 25-21, 25-15, 25-20.

Tied at 12 in the opening set, the Spartans distanced themselves from their opponents with an ace, a couple kills and some errors from ICCC, eventually taking a 20-14 lead.

The Tritons burned a timeout and came roaring back, winning 11 of the next 12 points to take the opening set.

“We kind of let them get into our heads. We made a few errors and it tail spun from there,” said SWCC head coach Casey Quiggle. “It’s part of the game.”

Southwestern once again opened up a lead in the second set, pushing out to a 10-6 advantage early in the set.

The Tritons put together a kill from Karolayne Santos and an off-speed shot from Libby Zorn to cut the deficit. After a Spartan miscommunication, ICCC’s Taylor Bienemann picked up a block followed by another Triton kill to give Iowa Central a 13-11 edge.

The Spartans couldn’t rally and dropped a majority of the following points, losing the second set 25-15.

Finally, the two teams stayed even through the third set, trading kills and errors until it was 20-20. Jada Perkins had a number of those kills for the Spartans in the third set and finished the night with eight.

Hannah Ryan put together five kills in the contest.

Iowa Central reeled off five consecutive points to put the match on ice after two blocks and two kills from Amaya Finley and Santos, which ended the contest.

For Southwestern, Quiggle was happy with the effort, but knows that in order for the Spartans to compete with the region’s best teams they’ll need to become more adept at the net.

“We definitely need to work on our blocking. We started off the season with good blocking and the last two games we’ve had one block in two matches,” said Quiggle.

With the slow start to the season Quiggle thinks the team is handling the mental challenges of playing some of the best teams in the country well.

“Tonight I thought we handled it well ... It’s never easy to kind of think about that,” said Quiggle of the 1-10 start. “We’ve played four or five Division 1 JUCO schools.”

UP NEXT – Southwestern (1-10, 0-4) will look to pick up a couple wins Friday when it travels to Highland Community College in Illinois to take on both Highland and Harry S. Truman College.

Iowa Central 3, Southwestern 0

Serving (aces) — SWCC: Jada Perkins 12-13 (1); Ashley Porter 10-10 (1); Lyann Mena Rodriguez 8-11; Emily Williams 7-9; Hannah Ryan 10-11; Kailey Miracky 3-3; Taylor Miracle 2-2; Cayla Maitlen 3-3.

Attacks (kills) — SWCC: Perkins 19-25 (8); Ryan 22-30 (5); Jentri Hullinger 9-12 (4); Williams 9-11 (1); Miracky 8-9 (2); Maitlen 1-1.

Blocks (solo, assists) — Williams (0,1); Miracky (0,1); Hullinger (0,1).

Setting (assists) — SWCC: Porter 15; Rodriguez 2.

Digs — SWCC: Rodriguez 19, Perkins 11, Ryan 4, Maitlen 4, Porter 3, Fisher 2, Hullinger 2, Miracle 1, Kaitlyn Miracky 1.