Roaring along with their most successful stretch in years, Allen Community College’s volleyball team came up with another victory Wednesday night, downing visiting Labette Community College.
It didn’t necessarily follow the same formula as many of Allen’s previous matches, but the Red Devils’ four-set victory still left head coach Jessica Peters happy with the result.
“It was almost a reverse of the way we’d been playing,” Peters said of Allen’s 21-25, 25-15, 25-22, 25-12 victory. “In the past, it was Allen starting quickly, then having a letdown in sets two or three, and then being challenged to win in five.
“If I had to pick, I’d probably choose tonight’s version,” she continued. “We got our bad play out of the way early and was able to leave it behind.”
Wednesday’s slow period was at the start of the match. Allen and Labette traded points in the first set until the Cardinals broke an 18-18 deadlock with five straight points to seize control.
Many of Labette’s points came from Allen errors, Peters noted.
“They only earned 10 of their points,” she said. “The other 15 came from hitting or serving errors from us. We actually had more kills in our first game than any other the rest of the night, but we also had more errors.”
The early setback prompted Peters to alter her lineup slightly.
“We flipped our rotation, putting our front row to the back row, so we could match up different blockers,” Peters said.
Allen wound up with nine solo blocks, and 25 others in which teammates combined for assisted blocks.
A trio of Red Devils took full advantage.
Sophomore Danielle Goodman blasted 17 kills, with a .326 attack percentage.
“Her teammates kept feeding her the ball, and she kept attacking,” Peters said.
Meanwhile, Lizzy Huey had several key blocks, particularly late in the third set.
Her block capped a 5-1 ACC run to give the Red Devils a 20-16 lead. Labette got no closer than 24-22 the rest of the set.
Andonae Magdziarz’s kill gave the Red Devils the set.
