September 30, 2007
SEWARD
COUNTY
WINS
MIDLAND
TOURNAMENT WITH 5-0 RECORD
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Dan Yang
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The No. 14 Seward County Community College volleyball team won the Midland College Tournament last weekend with a perfect 5-0 tournament record at
Lady
Chaps
Center
in
Midland
,
Texas
. The Lady Saints won three matches on Friday and two matches on Saturday.
Seward
County
freshman outside hitter Dan Yang was named Tournament Most Valuable Player and freshman Jelena Simic was also named to the All-Tournament Team. The Lady Saints have now won 17 of their last 19 matches.
Seward
County
improves to 22-5 overall this season.
Seward
County
opened play on Friday morning defeating New Mexico Military Institute 30-28, 30-16, 29-31, 30-27. NMMI made it a tough match for the Lady Saints with Seward never leading by more than four points in the first game. In game-two,
Seward
County
dominated with a .519 hitting percentage (16 kills, 2 errors, 27 attempts). Yang posted a team-high 29 kills, Jelena Simic collected a double/double with 21 kills and 17 digs with a .439 hitting percentage, while Katy Troutman tallied 24 digs.
In their second match,
Seward
County
needed only three games to knock off
Western
Texas
College
30-14, 30-18, 30-26. Simic played in only two games as freshman Ami Wang made her first collegiate start for the Lady Saints. Yang led all players with 25 kills. Freshman setter Chelsea Myers added a team-high 26 assists and Alex Droogsma collected 14 assists, six digs and two kills. SCCC was efficient from an attacking standpoint with a .446 team hitting percentage.
The final match of the day pitted the Lady Saints against host school
Midland
College
in a hostile environment on the Lady Chaps home court. Despite trailing 0-2, the Lady Saints battled back to win the match 28-30, 26-30, 30-28, 30-24, 15-12.
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Jelena Simic
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Alex Droogsma
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Yang carried the Lady Saints past their first elimination game in game-three with 12 kills. In the fourth game,
Seward
County
again fought off defeat with Yang and Simic collecting seven kills each. In the fifth and deciding game,
Seward
County
started off the game with four attack errors and trailed 5-10. Freshman Heather Zerr gave Seward a much needed advantage from the service line as she guided the Lady Saints back into the match with the score tied 11-11 after her seven serves.
Seward
County
finished the match against
Midland
with back-to-back kills by Simic to post their second five game victory this season. Yang recorded 36 kills, tying the all-time SCCC single match record for kills that she set earlier this season. Troutman posted a season-high 29 digs and Simic collected another double/double with 26 kills and 15 digs.
SCCC opened play on championship Saturday as the No. 1 seed after round-robin play on Friday. The Lady Saints defeated
Western
Texas
College
for the second consecutive day with a 30-20, 30-20, 30-22 win, advancing to play
Midland
in the championship match.
In the championship, the Lady Saints didn’t allow Midland an opportunity to get revenge as they knocked off the Lady Chaps 27-30, 30-24, 30-21, 30-19. Yang tallied a team-high 28 kills and Simic posted her team leading 12th double/double of the season with 22 kills and 17 digs. In addition, Droogsma became the
Seward
County
all-time career leader in assists with 2,409. Droogsma recorded 33 assists and 14 digs against
Midland
, breaking the previous all-time career assists record of 2,404 set by Joella Zubia from 1997-1998. Droogsma set the SCCC single-season record for assists last season with 1,751.
Seward
County
will remain on the road next Wednesday, Oct. 3 for a Jayhawk West Conference match against
Hutchinson
Community College
at the Sports Arena. The first serve is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. The Lady Saints will look to snap
Hutchinson
’s 28 match conference winning streak. The Lady Blue Dragons have not lost a match in conference play since the 2003 season.
