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get to the game? Don't worry, we've got ya covered.
Tiger volleyball nets first MIAA win
10/5/2007
By RANDY GONZALES
Hays Daily News
Tiger volleyball coach Steve Smith isn't expecting his players to do great things.
Instead, Smith wants his Fort Hays State University volleyball team to be good on a consistent basis.
The Tigers were just that in Thursday night's Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association match against Missouri Western State University in Gross Memorial Coliseum.
After dropping the first game, 30-25, Fort Hays reeled off three straight wins, 30-21, 30-20, 33-31.
"We want to win like this," Smith said. "Consistency probably is the most important thing."
The Tigers' first conference victory of the season boosted Fort Hays (14-10 overall, 1-5 MIAA) into fourth place in the five-team West Division of the MIAA. Important, because only the top four teams advance to the conference tournament at the end of the season.
"It's a great way to come into the weekend," Smith said of the win.
Fort Hays will play host to Northwest Missouri State University 6 p.m. Saturday in GMC.
After a slow start in Game 1 (hitting .176 , the lowest of four games), Fort Hays bounced back to take the second game.
Fort Hays built a 19-9 lead; the closest the Griffons got was 20-13 from there.
The Tigers came out of the break seemingly on a mission to take over the match. Senior outside hitter Kellyn Thaut led the charge. Thaut had 10 of her match-high 25 kills (one short of her season high) in Game 3. Fort Hays led 24-19 coming out of a time out when the Tigers got two straight blocks and a kill by Thaut to take a 27-19 lead.
Game 4 was a tense, taut affair. The biggest lead by either team was just three points, twice by Missouri Western, at 10-7 and 28-25.
Trailing by three points late, the Tigers evened the match on kills by senior outside hitter Neeley Remmers and Thaut and a block at the net.
After a time out, the Griffons dumped the ball over the net to take the lead and get a game point. But a service error tied the game. A Griffon kill gave the visitors another game point, but junior middle hitter Leanna Roberts' block tied the game at 30-30.
Yet another kill by the Griffons put them on the precipice of a Game 5, but Roberts was in on another block to tie the game, and yet another block to give the Tigers the lead.
With Fort Hays one point away from the match, who else but Thaut applied the coup de grace, hitting a ball down the line after senior Whitney Miller made a diving dig to set up the game-winner.
The Tigers let loose a mighty roar after the win, and it was time to tell fans to drive home safely.
"Kellyn wants the ball all the time," Smith said. "Kellyn is like an NBA player who is 0-20 and wants the winning shot. That's the same way with Kellyn."
Miller ended the night with 27 digs.
"Our defense has really improved in the past year," Smith said. "Whitney Miller was an outside hitter last year, moved her to liberio."
Senior Whitney Hoffman added 58 assists after passing the 1,000 mark for the season in Wednesday's win over Oklahoma-Panhandle State.
Missouri Western (7-14, 1-6), in last place in the MIAA East, was led by senior Alyssa Berg with 17 kills.
Now, it's on to Saturday for the Tigers.
"It's all about consistency," Smith said. "That's what it's about this weekend, too."
Sports editor Randy Gonzales can be reached at (785) 628-1081, Ext 137, or by e-mail at
rgonzales@dailynews.net.
| Scoreboard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Date | Opponent | Score |
| BB | 5/11 | Central Missouri | L 4-2 |
| BB | 5/10 | Missouri Western | W 4-3 |
| BB | 5/09 | Emporia State | L 6-5 |
| BB | 5/04 | Pittsburg State | W 17-5 |
| BB | 5/04 | Pittsburg State | L 4-3 |
| BB | 5/03 | Pittsburg State | L 15-7 |
| BB | 5/03 | Pittsburg State | L 5-4 |
| SB | 5/02 | Central Missouri | L 3-1 |
| SB | 5/02 | Missouri Western | W 3-2 |
| SB | 5/01 | Pittsburg State | W 6-0 |
