Harper bows out of Region IV tourney
For the first time in seven years, Harper College hosted the NJCAA Division III, Region IV women’s volleyball tournament Saturday.
A raucous crowed packed the Sports and Wellness Center, and they saw an unusual outcome as the top two seeds didn’t survive.
The day started when top seed Joliet Junior College lost 3-1 to No. 4 seed Madison Area Technical College.
An hour later the second-seeded Hawks fell in straight sets to the No. 3 seed, Rock Valley College.
“They’re 18-year-old girls,” said Harper coach Bob Vilsoet of the top two seeds bowing out.
The Hawks had won the two previous games against Rock Valley played at the Sports and Wellness Center.
“I think we know this day ultimately matters,” Rock Valley coach Abby Jenkins said of playing a team for the third time.
The Golden Eagles rushed out to a 6-1 lead, when Vilsoet called a timeout to see if he could wrestle momentum away from RVC.
“I think we were nervous,” Vilsoet said.
The closest the Hawks could cut the lead to was 7-4. Hitting errors early in the set cost the Hawks as the fell 25-17.
The Hawks saw some good things in the second set. After struggling to block or dig the Golden Eagles with much consistency, Harper was finally able to earn its first block point of the game to make it 8-4.
After missing the last several weeks of the regular season, Clara Moravec (Jacobs) returned to the lineup for serve. It went wide, though, and the latter half of the second set went back and forth in spurts.
Rock Valley went on a 5-1 run to take a 19-15 lead before Harper battle its way back to tie the game at 24-24 before the Eagles won 26-24.
“Any one of those games was a play or two away from changing the outcome,” Vilsoet said.
The best set of the game for the the Hawks was clearly the thrid as they ran out to a quick 4-1 lead. But with Harper leading the second set 18-15, the Golden Eagles went scored 5 of the next 7 points to tie it at 20-20 before finishing the Hawks off with a 3-0 run to win the set 27-25.
Men’s cross country: Pablo Ramirez took top individual honors and Harper easily claimed the team title in the Region IV meet on Saturday at Moraine Valley Community College.
Ramirez covered the 5-mile course in 26:12; also cracking the top 10 were teammates Troy Cunningham (26:41, fourth) and Cisco Soto (27:00, ninth).