Campus News

Lady Lakers split home tri-match

GC impressive in Monroe loss, lethargic in Penn Highlands win

Photo by Elizabeth Show
Garrett College's Thelma McGee puts down a kill over Penn Highland's Anna Hinzy (23) as Black Bears Samantha McGuire (12) and Kaitlyn Baxendale (5) look on. The Lady Lakers swept Saturday's match in three straight sets.

Garrett College followed an inspired match against high-powered Monroe University with a sluggish effort against Pennsylvania Highlands Community College, resulting in a split of Saturday's women's volleyball tri-match.

Ironically, the Lady Lakers' best effort came while being swept, and their lethargic performance came while sweeping winless Penn Highlands.

GC's efforts left head coach Brittany Jackson figuratively scratching her head.

“Every game you need to leave it all out on the court,” said Jackson, whose squad used the split to stay above .500 at 6-5. “If our standards aren't higher [than the Penn Highlands match], it's going to be a rocky rest-of-the-season.

“Every match from here on out, except our second match against Penn Highlands, is a region match,” added Jackson. “If we want to make the [NJCAA Division II Region 20] playoffs, we have to play up to the standards we've set for ourselves.”

GC is currently 5-3 in the region standings.

Monroe – an NJCAA Division I team that improved to 14-4 – swept GC , 25-18, 25-11, and 25-19, but Jackson was pleased with her squad's effort.

“Even though the scores don't reflect it, we kept ourselves to our standards,” said Jackson.

Madison Smith had a match-high 10 kills and Natalia Rodriguez added eight kills to pace Monroe. Mileyshka Melendez added a match-high 23 assists while Jelena Peric equaled GC's Paola Chirino with 11 digs.

Brenna L'Hommedieu and Thelma McGee led the Lady Lakers with six kills each, while Chi Lalk added five kills. Karen Cuellar contributed 20 assists and eight digs.

Garrett swept Penn Highlands, 25-17, 25-15, and 25-16. The Black Bears (0-9) weren't able to generate much offense against GC, finishing with just eight kills, but stayed in each set with patience and strong digging while taking advantage of Garrett errors.

“We had a good match serving-wise, but otherwise it was pretty hit-or-miss,” observed Jackson.

The Black Bears rallied from an eight-point, first-set deficit to pull within 22-17. GC, however, finished out the set with a 3-0 run that included a tip by McGee, who athletically avoided touching the net to complete the point.

Penn Highlands was within 10-6 in the second set when the Lady Lakers went on an 8-0 run that included numerous Black Bear errors and a kill from Lalk (seven kills). The third set was tied, 9-9, but GC answered with a 6-0 run that included a pair of aces by Cuellar (nine aces, 19 assists), who also assisted on a L'Hommedieu kill during the scoring spree.

Chirino finished with eight digs while L'Hommedieu had seven kills and four digs.

Notes: Monroe swept Penn Highlands, 25-9, 25-9, and 25-8, in Saturday's other match.