ATLANTA, Ga. – On the final day of play at the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship Tournament Saturday, the Millsaps College volleyball team closed out the 2009 season in style with a 3-0 win over Sewanee-University of the South and a thrilling, five-set victory against Hendrix College.
With the pair of victories, the Majors close the season with an overall record of 17-17.
After a disappointing loss to host Oglethorpe to open the tournament yesterday, the Majors bounced back this morning with a dominating performance against Sewanee, which lasted just 50 minutes.
Millsaps jumped out to a quick 8-1 lead with kills from sophomore
Maggie Tumminello and recently named SCAC Freshman-of-the-Year
Raven Scott.
Fellow freshman
Sarah Zito extended the Majors’ lead to 13-4 with two kills of her own. The offense continued to click and successive kills from junior
Mallory Clark, freshman
Kaitlyn Crippin and junior
Victoria Romano increased the lead to 17-6. Millsaps closed out the first set with a service ace from Scott and a kill by Tumminello for the 1-0 lead.
The Majors carried the momentum into the second set and opened an 11-4 advantage with back-to-back aces by Scott. Sewanee fought its way back to 12-8, but a kill from senior
Amanda Cain got things rolling again for the Majors, who easily won the second set 25-13, for a commanding 2-0 set lead.
Crippin put the Majors ahead in the third set with a diving save that fell for a kill. Millsaps looked to put the set out of reach and did so with excellent blocking and solid defense.
A block by Romano and two more aces from Scott propelled the Majors to a 25-10 win in the third set to close the match in favor of Millsaps 3-0.
The Majors then faced Hendrix College, a team they defeated 3-0 earlier this year, in their final match of the 2009 season and came away with a 3-2 victory in five-sets.
Millsaps lost the first two points, but tied the score 2-2 with a kill from Scott and a block by Scott and Romano. The majority of the set was filled with ties and lead changes, as neither team was able to dictate play.
With consecutive aces by Cain, the Majors took a 20-18 lead and closed out the set 25-20 with another block by the combination of Scott and Romano and a service ace from Clark for the 1-0 advantage.
The second set began similar to the first with the teams trading points until Hendrix took a 14-11 lead only to see Millsaps rally to tie the score 14-14.
The Warriors promptly regained the lead 20-16 and were able to hold off the Majors’ comeback effort as they claimed the second set 25-23 to even the match 1-1.
Hendrix jumped to an 11-4 lead at the start of the third set and never looked back as they easily took the set 25-12 to take control of the match 2-1.
Millsaps responded early in the fourth set by taking a 6-2 lead behind stellar serving from Crippin. The teams played evenly with the Majors holding on to their slight lead until going on a scoring run to go ahead 18-11.
A kill from Zito put the Majors comfortably in front 23-15 and Tumminello took over with an ace and a kill as Millsaps evened the match 2-2 with a 25-16 victory in the fourth set to force a decisive fifth set.
Scott put Millsaps on the scoreboard first in the final set with a kill and the teams again traded points until the Majors claimed an 8-6 lead as the teams switched sides.
A kill by Zito gave the Majors a 10-6 lead forcing a Hendrix timeout. Out of the timeout, the Warriors scored three straight points to cut into Millsaps’ lead until Crippin emphatically put away a kill to end the run.
An ace from senior
Dixie Krauss gave Millsaps a match point, which they converted to take the set 15-12 and win the match 3-2 to finish the season with an even 17-17 record.