 |  |
Baptist Bible Advances To CSAC Finals
Story Courtesy of the Baptist Bible Athletics Site
Clarks Summit, PA- After securing the second
seed to give themselves a bye and home court advantage in the
semifinal game, the Lady Defenders of Baptist Bible College used
the home crowd atmosphere to advance to the Colonial States
Athletic Conference finals for the first time. Baptist Bible
College defeated the Neumann University Knights 3-1 in the
semifinal game. It was the Lady Defender's nineteenth win of the
season, putting their record to 19-10.
In Baptist Bible's third year in the conference, the Lady Defender
volleyball team is the first team from Baptist Bible College to
make it to any CSAC final. The Lady Defenders will face the
defending CSAC champions in Cabrini College on Saturday, November 6
at 5:00 pm. They will travel to Cabrini to take on the Cavaliers
for the second time this season. Baptist Bible lost 3-1 to the
Cavaliers earlier this season. Last season Cabrini ended the Lady
Defender's season knocking them out in the semifinal game.
With excitement brewing in the stands and on the court, both teams
matched each other point for point. Baptist Bible scored, then
Neumann, with neither team wanting their season to end. No more
than three points separated the teams until the Lady Defenders used
the home court advantage and started to pull away 16-12. That lead
soon became 20-13 as Baptist Bible went on the win the all
important first game 25-20. The momentum of the first game carried
on into the second as the Lady Defender scored the first six points
to lead 6-0. The Knights would attempt to close the gap a few
times, but to no avail with the Defenders advancing to a 25-20 win
and a two games to none lead.
But Neumann would not easily go away. With their backs to the wall
the Knights battled to a 9-6 lead and never looked back as they
lead the entire second game. Down 11-12 the Lady Defenders would
get no closer, and Neumann cruised to a 25-17 win to avoid their
season coming to an end.
A see-saw fourth game did not see a lead larger than one point
until Baptist Bible went up 12-10. The Knights then came right back
to tie the game at 12 before the Lady Defenders netted five
straight points to take the 17-12 edge. Once again Neumann was not
ready to give in fighting back to knot the game at 20 apiece. But
Baptist Bible was too much again scoring five straight points to
win the set 25-20 and match 3-1. The win moves the Lady Defenders
into the finals.
Once again, Baptist Bible was led by senior captain Marlie Kneifel
(Kouts, IN) who led three Lady Defenders in double-doubles. Kneifel
had 13 kills and 16 digs as Jessica White (Lakeland, FL) followed
with 12 kills, 10 digs, and 4 blocks and Emily Gordon (Grand Blanc,
MI) tagged along with 10 kills and 16 digs. Katelin Broughton
(Mansfield, PA) added a game high 38 assists. Also helping the team
to victory was Laura Hodupp (St. Petersburg, FL) with 15 digs and
Brittany Floyd (Cary, NC) with 7 kills.
Leading Neumann's effort was Katelin Kuklentz with a game high 17
kills and 17 digs. Natalie George added 15 kills. Defensively
Victoria Limmina contributed 16 digs followed by Maria Donahue with
11. Cecily Scavicchio helped set up her team with 37 assists and 11
digs.
