Volleyball team wins five-set thriller against Kalamazoo

The Olivet College volleyball team won a thrilling five-set match against Kalamazoo College tonight at The Cutler Event Center in OIivet. The Comets won the first (25-20) and third (30-28) sets, while the Hornets won the second (25-23) and fourth (25-23) sets. Olivet led almost the entire fifth set, winning it 15-9, to win the match. With the win, the Comets have won three matches in a row and four of their last five.

Box Score

Team Stats

Volleyball team wins five-set thriller against Kalamazoo
October 2, 2012

OLIVET, Mich. – The Olivet College volleyball team won a thrilling five-set match against Kalamazoo College tonight at The Cutler Event Center in OIivet. The Comets won the first (25-20) and third (30-28) sets, while the Hornets won the second (25-23) and fourth (25-23) sets. Olivet led almost the entire fifth set, winning it 15-9, to win the match. With the win, the Comets have won three matches in a row and four of their last five.

The first set was back and forth for the first 20 points. With the set tied at 10-10, Olivet scored the next two points and it did not relinquish the lead for the rest of the set. The Comets had a 15-10 lead in the second set before the Hornets went on a 5-0 run to tie it 15-15. Olivet led twice by two points, 17-15 and 18-16. Kalamazoo came back with a 4-1 run to take a 20-19 lead, which it did not give up.

The Comets held a 20-15 lead in the third set. The Hornets scored six of the next seven points to force a 21-21 tie. Twice, Kalamazoo had set point but was denied by Olivet. With the score tied at 28-28, freshman Lydia Drikakis (Battle Creek/Lakeview) pounded down back-to-back kills to win the set for the Comets.

The first time Kalamazoo led the fourth set was at 23-22. Olivet tied the score at 23-23 before a kill by Nya Greenstone and Comet attack error gave the Hornets the fourth-set win.

Kalamazoo led the deciding set 1-0 and 2-1 before Olivet went on a 5-0 run to take a 6-2 lead. The Hornets got as close as 8-7 and 9-8 but the Comets held on for the win. An ace by freshman Brooke Stano (Commerce Twp./Walled Lake Northern) ended the match.

For the match, Olivet posted its second-best hitting percentage of the season at .261, but recorded a season-high 68 kills. Drikakis topped the team with a career, single-match high 22 kills. She had only four errors on 43 attempts for a .419 attacking percentage. Sophomore Emma Brann (Ann Arbor/Pioneer) finished with 18 kills, while junior Stefanie Lang (Valparaiso, Ind.) also had double digit kills with 17.

Seven different Comets served an ace. Sophomore Taylor Pringle (Haslett) collected a single-match, season-high 56 set assists. Sophomore Megan VanderVlucht (McBain) led the back row with 25 digs, followed by junior Tina Westendorp (Nashville/Maple Valley) with 14 and Drikakis with 12.

Olivet will return to action Saturday afternoon when it plays at Alma College. First serve at Art Smith Arena is noon.