The Marshalltown Community College women's volleyball team is currently riding a six-game winning streak in large part to Meghann Cole (Des Moines, IA/West Des Moines Valley) and Alyssa Whitmore (Legrand, IA/East Marshall), named this week's Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively.
The Tigers won all five of their matches last week, including a thrilling 3-2 ICCAC victory over Iowa Central Community College on Wednesday, the team's first win over the Tritons since 2009. Cole led the offensive attack for MCC, totaling a career-high 17 kills. Whitmore contributed defensively for the Tigers, posting 13 digs over five sets.
MCC continued to roll on Thursday night, picking up two more wins against Central College JV and AIB JV as Cole and Whitmore continued to lead MCC. The Tigers closed out the week with a pair of weekend sweeps on Saturday, scoring 3-0 wins over Dakota County Technical College and Central College JV at the Trojan Volleyball Tournament, hosted by North Iowa Area Community College.
On Saturday, Cole posted back-to-back double-digit kill performances, registering 11 against Dakota County and 10 against Central College JV. In the opening match against Dakota County, Cole served up a career-high seven service aces and tallying seven digs. For the week, Cole totaled 48 kills to give her 226 on the year, ranking second on the team behind Miranda Smith's (Albion, IA/Marshalltown) 233. Smith ranks fifth in the ICCAC while Cole ranks sixth.
Whitmore stepped in as the team's libero for the weekend after primary libero Ashley Salgado (Ottumwa, IA/Ottumwa), a two-time ICCAC Defensive Player of the Week recipient, went down with an injury on Thursday night. Whitmore recorded 45 digs over three matches filling in for Salgado to pace the Tiger defense. Whitmore, who has tallied six straight double-digit dig performances, collected 74 total digs on the week as the sophomore anchored a defense that dropped just three sets over the course of the week.
With the six-match winning streak, the Tigers now sit at 16-12 overall, tying the 2012 team's win total, while sitting tied for sixth in league play with a 3-3 record.
Cole, Whitmore and the rest of the Tiger squad return to action on Wednesday night as they travel to Ellsworth Community College (8-16, 1-5) for an ICCAC showdown.
