Published: September 14, 2008 12:13 am            

Rams silence ‘Dogs

BLUEFIELD, Va. — Alyssa Cornell didn’t sleep much on Friday night. It was hard to tell on Saturday morning.

Cornell contributed seven digs, three aces and 11 kills — including four of Bluefield College’s final five points — leading the Rams to an entertaining 25-15, 19-25, 25-19, 25-22 Appalachian Athletic Conference volleyball win over Tennessee Wesleyan on Saturday at the Dome Gymnasium.

It was a nice win for the Rams, which had lost two straight after key AAC wins over King and Virginia-Wise, including a three-game loss to Union only a few hours before.

“I didn’t sleep last night because I was just so excited because after last night, it was awful,” said Cornell, a senior from Mansfield, Ohio. “I really wanted to turn things around so I didn’t sleep at all.”

Bluefield (4-7) improved to 3-1 in the AAC, including a Sept. 2 win at league favorite King. Not bad considering the Rams were picked 10th — or last — in the preseason polls.

“We beat the No. 1 team in the conference and ever since then, it’s like we’re either way up or we’re way down, we can’t get a happy medium,” Bluefield head coach Jamie Bowman said. “I am very happy to be 3-1 in the conference.

“I just think today we were tired and they are worn out, but they finished when they needed to so I’m proud of that.”

While Bluefield was playing its fourth game in six days, the Bulldogs (4-4, 1-4) traveled from Athens, Tenn., and played Virginia-Wise on Friday night and then played Bluefield in an 11 a.m. start. The ‘Dogs lost both contests.

“We played pretty bad last night, Wise played a lot better, but we played a lot better today,” Tennessee Wesleyan coach Toby Brooks said. “This is always a tough trip and a long drive. Come up and spend the night and two quick matches within 24 hours so it is a lot on them.”

Bluefield showed no sympathy, attacking the Bulldogs behind the hitting of Cornell, Megan Criss (12 kills, 4 digs) and Megan Randall (10 kills, 6 digs).

“Great, great hitters, everything was just so awesome, I’m really proud of my team, everybody stepped up in their own way,” said Cornell, who wears a large knee brace after suffering an ACL injury last season, causing her to miss half the volleyball and basketball campaigns. “I’m just really, really tired, but after a tough week we were pretty mentally strong.”

Felicia Marmo (26 digs), Yeda Duarte (16 digs), Alyssa Weddle (11 digs, 3 aces) and Lisa Reale (11 digs, 32 assists) spent much of the match diving after loose balls, as the clubs split the first two games before the Rams won the final two.

Criss was the big hitter in the third game, with Cornell making plays down the stretch. The Rams snapped a two-game skid, dropping matches this week to Concord and Union.

“It’s been a really tough week, we’ve had four games in six days so our mentality was to give everything that we have for this last little bit,” Cornell said. “It was almost over, we just needed to really push and get on a little run and try to put them away.”

Bluefield led throughout the fourth set before the Bulldogs whittled the score down to 14-14. A couple serving aces by Weddle enabled the Rams to build the margin back to 22-17, pushing the lead to 24-21 on a long rally that finally ended when Cornell punished the ball to the floor.

“It is so hard because you want to be the one that makes that play and it’s almost a letdown when you don’t win that rally,” Cornell said. “It really hurts you so we really wanted to win those rallies because we really wanted to just put them down.”

Tennessee Wesleyan (4-4, 1-4) was led by Paige Goins (12 kills, 8 digs), and Brittany Brechlin (10 kills). Whitney Ottow (27 digs), Cindy Cotter (10 digs), Samantha Mylinder (11 digs) and Cassie Swinney (15 assists) helped keep numerous balls in play.

“They made a couple of real nice plays at that point (14-14) and in a game like this, especially in rally scoring, you get two or three points ahead that late in the game, it’s hard to make it up,” Brooks said. “It was a real hard fought match, I thought both teams played pretty well and they just out-hustled us a little more today and made some nice plays down the stretch.”

Bluefield faces a three-match week ahead, starting Tuesday at Montreat, followed by weekend home tilts with Bryan and Covenant.

“I’m glad we won, but I’m not overly happy because we have the talent,” Bowman said. “Mentally we just can’t break through the blocks that we have and they’ve got to learn how to do that.

“They pulled it out. I have four seniors that are on the floor and they really pull things together when they have to and they get it done. I was happy with them, but I’m not totally happy.”

Bowman was happy enough to give them today off. It was a much-deserved break for a team that had earned some rest.

“It really is nice, I really can’t explain how excited I am right now,” said Cornell, when asked about sitting near the top of the AAC behind front-running Bryan. “After the past couple of nights we really needed a “W” to try and get our minds right and try to get focused back on our goals so it was really good.”

—Contact Brian Woodson

at bwoodson@bdtonline.com

        

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