Thursday: #3 Central Missouri vs. #6 Missouri Southern
*Tyler Madsen*
2:30 PM
The third-seed University of Central Missouri Jennies overpowered the six-seed Missouri Southern State University Lions for the third time this season Thursday afternoon, advancing to the South Central Regional second round with a 3-1 (-17, 25-30, -19, -21) victory.
“I thought Missouri Southern came to play, especially after game one where they struggled a little bit,” Peggy Martin, Central Missouri head coach said. “Our girls played very well-rounded today, so hopefully that can carry over to tomorrow.”
UCM jumped out to a hot start, led by senior libero/outside hitter Katie Tarka and junior middle hitter Jillian Ohrman’s six kills apiece in game one. After falling behind 2-0, the Jennies took nine of the next ten points to take a 9-3 lead and force Missouri Southern head coach Chris Willis to burn an early timeout. The Jennies kept rolling, increasing that lead to eleven at 22-11 before the Lions put a small rally together to cut the UCM lead to seven late in the match. However, it wasn’t enough as the 3rd-seeded Jennies pulled away late to take game one 30-17.
Tarka, typically the team’s libero, shocked many of the fans in attendance with her transition to from the defensive position to the front line.
“We were talking about [the move from the libero position] earlier this week, but we didn’t want to make a switch until we knew for sure that would be a good option,” Tarka said. “It was obviously a different feeling today from the rest of the season, but I played the outside spot last year and in high school, so in that aspect it was somewhat familiar.”
Game two started more evenly, with the two teams trading points early. Missouri Southern took advantage of a pair of ball handling errors and bad sets by the Jennies to gain their largest lead of the match at 13-9 before Peggy Martin called a timeout to regroup her squad. Out of the timeout though, the Lions kept rolling, taking four more in a row and forcing another UCM timeout at 17-9. Central finally righted the ship to close the gap to four at 24-20, but Missouri Southern was able to trade points the rest of the way, evening the match by taking game two 30-25.
“They made a lot of adjustments in our lineup during the first game which our girls adjusted to much better in game two,” Missouri Southern head coach Chris Willis said. “With two similarly matched teams, you’ll see it a lot that if one wins big in one game, then the other will bounce back in the second game and even the match.”
After sputtering through game two, the Jennies came out strong in the third game, taking the first six point and ten of the first twelve to build a 10-2 lead. Tarka continued her strong play from the first two games in the outset of game three by registering five kills in the Jennies’ first ten points. Central kept the pressure on, leading by ten at 17-7 before the Lions fired back to cut the gap to four at 18-14 UCM. A pair of back-to-back tip points put Central ahead 26-17, before the Jennies closed out game three 30-19.
UCM jumped out to another big lead in game four, getting ahead 9-4 as junior middle/outside hitter Andrea Robertson propelled herself into the double-digit kill category. The Jennies then traded points with the Lions to the midway point, when the red and black went two straight times to Ohrman to get to their largest lead of game four at 17-11. But the green and gold wouldn’t go away quietly, rattling off a run to cut the differential to three at 22-19, but it was another kill by Ohrman that stopped the rally and get UCM a critical side-out. That ensuing three-point rally by the Jennies proved to be too much for the Lions to overcome, sending UCM to the Round of 32.
Tarka led all players with 22 kills, an amount which surpassed her season total to this point of 16. Ohrman finished with 20 kills and a .421 hitting percentage, while two other Jennies tallied double-digit kills. UCM hit .341 for the match and out-dug the Lions 86-69 in holding the NCAA Tournament first-timers to a .169 hitting percentage.
On the flip side, it was senior middle hitter Tessa Woods who led the charge for the Lions with 16 kills with only one error.
UCM advances to take on the winner of #2 Washburn/#7 West Florida tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 pm in the Regional Semifinals.
2:30 PM
The third-seed University of Central Missouri Jennies overpowered the six-seed Missouri Southern State University Lions for the third time this season Thursday afternoon, advancing to the South Central Regional second round with a 3-1 (-17, 25-30, -19, -21) victory.
“I thought Missouri Southern came to play, especially after game one where they struggled a little bit,” Peggy Martin, Central Missouri head coach said. “Our girls played very well-rounded today, so hopefully that can carry over to tomorrow.”
UCM jumped out to a hot start, led by senior libero/outside hitter Katie Tarka and junior middle hitter Jillian Ohrman’s six kills apiece in game one. After falling behind 2-0, the Jennies took nine of the next ten points to take a 9-3 lead and force Missouri Southern head coach Chris Willis to burn an early timeout. The Jennies kept rolling, increasing that lead to eleven at 22-11 before the Lions put a small rally together to cut the UCM lead to seven late in the match. However, it wasn’t enough as the 3rd-seeded Jennies pulled away late to take game one 30-17.
Tarka, typically the team’s libero, shocked many of the fans in attendance with her transition to from the defensive position to the front line.
“We were talking about [the move from the libero position] earlier this week, but we didn’t want to make a switch until we knew for sure that would be a good option,” Tarka said. “It was obviously a different feeling today from the rest of the season, but I played the outside spot last year and in high school, so in that aspect it was somewhat familiar.”
Game two started more evenly, with the two teams trading points early. Missouri Southern took advantage of a pair of ball handling errors and bad sets by the Jennies to gain their largest lead of the match at 13-9 before Peggy Martin called a timeout to regroup her squad. Out of the timeout though, the Lions kept rolling, taking four more in a row and forcing another UCM timeout at 17-9. Central finally righted the ship to close the gap to four at 24-20, but Missouri Southern was able to trade points the rest of the way, evening the match by taking game two 30-25.
“They made a lot of adjustments in our lineup during the first game which our girls adjusted to much better in game two,” Missouri Southern head coach Chris Willis said. “With two similarly matched teams, you’ll see it a lot that if one wins big in one game, then the other will bounce back in the second game and even the match.”
After sputtering through game two, the Jennies came out strong in the third game, taking the first six point and ten of the first twelve to build a 10-2 lead. Tarka continued her strong play from the first two games in the outset of game three by registering five kills in the Jennies’ first ten points. Central kept the pressure on, leading by ten at 17-7 before the Lions fired back to cut the gap to four at 18-14 UCM. A pair of back-to-back tip points put Central ahead 26-17, before the Jennies closed out game three 30-19.
UCM jumped out to another big lead in game four, getting ahead 9-4 as junior middle/outside hitter Andrea Robertson propelled herself into the double-digit kill category. The Jennies then traded points with the Lions to the midway point, when the red and black went two straight times to Ohrman to get to their largest lead of game four at 17-11. But the green and gold wouldn’t go away quietly, rattling off a run to cut the differential to three at 22-19, but it was another kill by Ohrman that stopped the rally and get UCM a critical side-out. That ensuing three-point rally by the Jennies proved to be too much for the Lions to overcome, sending UCM to the Round of 32.
Tarka led all players with 22 kills, an amount which surpassed her season total to this point of 16. Ohrman finished with 20 kills and a .421 hitting percentage, while two other Jennies tallied double-digit kills. UCM hit .341 for the match and out-dug the Lions 86-69 in holding the NCAA Tournament first-timers to a .169 hitting percentage.
On the flip side, it was senior middle hitter Tessa Woods who led the charge for the Lions with 16 kills with only one error.
UCM advances to take on the winner of #2 Washburn/#7 West Florida tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 pm in the Regional Semifinals.
posted by Tyler Madsen at Thursday, November 09, 2006
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