Oct. 16, 2007

By Anthony Arroyo

Journal-Advocate sports reporter

The Northeastern Junior College Plainswomen volleyball team began 2-0 during Day One of the Seward Invitational, eventually finishing the weekend with a 3-1 overall mark. The Plainswomen defeated the ranked No. 15 team in the nation, while also defeating teams that are just out of the top-20.

"The time we stepped on the floor against Seward to the time we stepped off against Arizona Western, I felt we were very consistent," NJC head volleyball coach Marci Henry said, summing up the tournament. "We passed the ball well, we attacked the ball really well and served like we know we can."

NJC - ranked No. 17 nationally - began things with a victory with the host team, 31-29, 30-28. The win acted as some revenge from a defeat to Seward during Northeastern's Pizza Hut Invitational held earlier this season.

In the contest, sophomore's Thais Hollerbach and Addi Radke each had 10 kills to lead the way. Fellow sophomore Tamy Leipelt was close behind with nine kills. Hollerbach had four service aces, tied for the most on her team with freshman Suyan Leipelt. As a team, Northeastern recorded 12 aces.

"I think our game set the tone for them the rest of the tournament because they did not play well," Henry said. "It was a hard fought game. We got some key blocks late in that game that put us over the edge."

Defensively, Radke had three of her team's five stuff blocks. Hollerbach had nine digs, followed by Radke and sophomore Jessica Tjaden with five apiece. Tjaden had 25 assists.

In the second match of two, the Plainswomen picked up another two-game set, this time with Midland College. NJC was victorious 30-24, 30-24. Hollerbach led the team again in kills with nine, followed by seven from T. Leipelt and six from Radke.

Northeastern had just seven aces as a team, with three of them coming from Tjaden, who also had 24 assists and four digs on the night. Thais had nine digs, with S. Leipelt close behind with eight.

NJC had an attack percentage of .300 in their victory. With a good night sleep, the Plainswomen continued their winning ways with a sweep against Arizona Western College Saturday morning, 30-21, 33-31. Although AWC wasn't ranked, they were just short of receiving votes to make the top-20.

Northeastern had big games from their sophomore trio. Hollerbach led with 12 kills, followed by Radke with 11 and T. Leipelt with 10. Tjaden had 30 assists and four kills. S. Leipelt had 11 digs to lead all defenders.

The team had a gap between morning action with Arizona Western College and evening action with Frank Phillips in the championship. Frank Phillips was ranked No. 7 in last week's national poll and defeated No. 1-ranked Western Nebraska Community College - only their second defeat this season.

NJC fell to Frank Phillips 30-15, 30-24 to finish the tournament with a 3-1 record and improve to 34-11 overall entering Monday. In that final match, Hollerbach led the team with 11 kills, with T. Leipelt going for nine and Radke finishing with eight. Hollerbach added three of her team's four aces, and also added four digs.

"We weren't fatigued in that last match, but I think we didn't get the match-up's that we would have liked to have against their big hitters," Henry said. "I think the players played a little timid in that first game, and when we started competing in the second game, it was too late."

Beginning on Wednesday, the Plainswomen will begin a stretch of four consecutive matches starting in Nebraska and concluding in Southern Colorado. NJC was home on Monday and return home Oct. 24 when Western Nebraska Community College come into town for the team's regular season finale.