Cedar Rapids, IA—The Marshalltown Community College women's volleyball season came to a close Tuesday night as the Tigers dropped their first round Region XI-B Tournament match 3-0 to No. 1 seed Kirkwood Community College. The Tigers finish the season with a 22-20 record, the team's most wins since the 2005 season.
Playing at Kirkwood, the No. 4 seed Tigers had strong starts to all three sets but fell late as the Eagles swept the Tigers out of the tournament. Reeba Box (Liscomb, IA/BCLUW) provided a strong all-around performance for the Tigers, recording eight kills to go along with 11 digs. Miranda Smith (Albion, IA/Marshalltown) led the Tigers with nine kills on the night.
Ashley Salgado (Ottumwa, IA/Ottumwa) opened up the first set with a service ace to give the Tigers momentum early on. MCC trailed by just one, 10-9 until the Eagles took off, scoring 15 of the next 21 points for a 25-16 win to take a 1-0 advantage.
Again the Tigers took an early lead in the second set as MCC held a 9-5 edge. Kirkwood, ranked No. 7 in this week's NJCAA Division II poll, battled back. The Eagles led 22-16 until Box caught fire, coming up with three digs down the stretch to keep the Tigers in contention. Kirkwood was able to hold off the Tiger rally to go up 2-0 with a 25-19 win.
The Tigers scored the first two points of the third set and held a 4-2 lead after Katelyn Yauslin (Cedar Rapids, IA/Alburnett) came up with one of her four kills on the night. After Kirkwood tied the game at seven, Box tallied back-to-back kills to give the Tigers a two-point cushion. The fast start proved to be short lived though as the Eagles came back to take a 25-18 win to finish off the Tigers in three sets.
Salgado registered a team-high 16 digs while fellow sophomore Alyssa Whitmore (Legrand, IA/East Marshall) recorded 12. Freshman setter Sam Hinrichs (Ankeny, IA/Ankeny) assisted on 25 attempts on the night.
The 2013-14 Tigers posted the program's first winning since 2005, a season that saw the Tigers win 25 games.
Kirkwood will go on to face No. 2 seed Southwestern Community College in the Region XI-B Championship at Iowa Central Community College at 2:00 PM on Saturday afternoon. Southwestern defeated Northeast Community College 3-0 on Tuesday night.
