Volleyball wins KCAC Tournament Championship with sweep of Bethany
By: David Toelle, KWU Sports Information

The KWU Volleyball team poses with its 2007 KCAC Regular Season and Post-Season Tournament Championship trophies after the Coyotes swept Bethany in the KCAC Tournament Championship match.

The Coyote Express keeps on rollin’. Kansas Wesleyan’s volleyball team picked up its 17th consecutive win with a 30-23, 30-18, 30-22 sweep of the Bethany Swedes on Saturday night at Muir Gymnasium.

The last time Wesleyan and Bethany met inside Muir Gymnasium, the Coyotes were without the services of KCAC Player of the Year Sarah Claborn, who was out with a knee injury. Bethany swept the Coyotes in three games. That was the last time Wesleyan lost a match, powering through the remainder of its conference schedule, and picking up two big non-conference wins over Heart of America conference opponents.

Kolby Rhoades led Wesleyan tonight with 25 kills, while Claborn added 19, as Wesleyan overpowered the Swedes, putting down 59 total kills in the match.

Wesleyan scored first in game one on a Claborn kill, but Bethany answered back with two straight points to make it 2-1. Wesleyan would take the lead back 3-2 before the Swedes would answer with a 4-0 run to take a 6-3 lead and force a Wesleyan timeout.

The Coyotes couldn’t seem the offense going through the first part of the game. A big block by Whitney DuBois would tie it at nine, but the Coyotes would fall behind again by as many as three at 11-14.

That’s when the offense awoke. Claborn got it started with a kill and then served one of her two aces on the night as the Coyotes would take a 17-15 lead thanks to a 6-1 run. Bethany would get two straight to tie it up at 17, when Wesleyan’s offense would go back to work. Rhoades would put a ball down on back to back plays as the Coyotes blew the game wide open on the heels of an 8-2 run to make in 25-19. Bethany could get no closer than 22-18 before the Coyotes took game one 30-23.

The Swedes scored the first two points of game two, but Claborn would get Wesleyan on the board when she hit Bethany’s Stephanie Adamson in the side of the face for the Coyotes’ first point of the game. Wesleyan would score two more before Bethany would come back to take a 4-3 lead. The Coyotes then would open it up when Rhoades would put down a ball to spark an 11-3 run to push the lead to 14-7 and force a Bethany timeout.

The Coyotes would pull out to a 22-11 lead on a kill by Ashley Winters before Bethany would get three straight points to make it 22-14. Wesleyan would use another Winters kill, followed by an ace by Winters to pull away and take game two when Angelisa Sexson was called for in the net on game point.

Game three started out just like game one, with KWU taking a short lead only to be answered by a Bethany (23-9) run to give them a lead. The Swedes would lead 10-8 when the Coyotes would make their first run of the game. Adamson would take another facial as Wesleyan started the run, scoring four straight to take a 12-10 lead. Bethany would rally, tying things up at 19-all, when the Coyotes would get things going. Back to back Claborn kills would put Wesleyan up 23-20, but the Swedes would answer with three straight, pulling within one at 23-22. It was the last points Bethany would score on the night.

Wesleyan would finish the match scoring the last seven points, capped by a kill over the middle by DuBois to sweep the match with a 30-22 win.

Rhoades’ 25 kills led the way while Claborn added 19. Kelli Berg had 52 assists, while Claborn led with two aces and was one of three Coyotes with one solo and one assisted block on the night. Karissa Kent had 21 digs to lead the Coyote defense.

KWU (26-7) advances to the NAIA Region IV Tournament on November 17 in Omaha, Neb.

Information regarding seeds and match times will be released next week from the NAIA Region IV Tournament Committee.

-- KWU SI --