By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Toledo, Ohio---Macy Reigelsperger (Coldwater/Coldwater, Ohio) had five crucial kills in the fifth set to lead the No. 6 Owens Community College women's volleyball team past Sinclair Community College 25-15, 21-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-10 at home tonight.
Owens is now 21-5 overall and remains perfect in Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) play with an 8-0 record. They will travel to Clark State Community College for a non-league matchup beginning at 6 p.m. The team then resumes conference play at home next Wednesday against Cuyahoga.
Owens took the first set behind four kills apiece from Erika Hartings (Coldwater/Coldwater, Ohio) and Taylor Purcell (Bedford/Temperance, Mich.). Defensively, Brooke Gyori (Clay/Oregon, Ohio) tallied eight of her season-high 39 digs in the set.
In the second set, Sinclair scored the first three points before Owens rallied for an 11-10 lead behind the play of Purcell and Reigelsperger, who had two kills apiece during the rally. The visitors called a timeout, though, and reeled off three straight points on kills before Ally Mikesell's (St. Henry/St. Henry, Ohio) kill ended the rally.
Mikesell's kill wasn't enough, however, as Sinclair never trailed again in the set and eventually pushed its lead to 23-16 before a late Owens rally made it a four point margin at the end.
Reigelsperger had four kills in the second set, while Abigail Hesselschwardt (Otsego/Grand Rapids, Ohio) had three.
The third set was back and forth and could have gone either way, but Hartings produced six kills to make sure Owens ultimately won the set.
Similar to the second set, Sinclair scored the first three points. Hartings answered back with back-to-back kills and assisted on a block with Reigelsperger to tie it up early. From there, neither team led by more than two points until Owens hit an attack out of bounds to give Sinclair a 14-11 lead.
From there, Owens went on a 4-0 rally to re-take the lead. Following that, neither team held more than a one point lead until the set was tied at 21-all. At that point, Owens closed the set with four straight points. Christine Tylutki (Monroe/Monroe, Mich.) and Reigelsperger teamed up for a block and Reigelsperger got a kill for a 23-21 lead. Hartings followed with a hard kill from the left side before Reigelsperger closed it out with a kill.
Gyori totaled 10 digs in the third set alone.
For the third straight set, Owens saw itself trailing 3-0 to begin the fourth. Owens answered back with five straight points from five different players to take a 5-3 lead, but Sinclair scored four of the next five points in the set and never trailed again. Owens got as close as three late in the set, but Sinclair closed it off with a kill for the third straight 25-21 set score.
Reigelsperger had five of the team's 12 kills in the fourth set, while Gyori had eight of the team's 19 digs.
In the fifth set, Hartings set the tone early, Reigelsperger stretched the lead in the middle and a service error ended the match.
After Owens had a bad pass to open the set, Hartings had a kill and a block to put Owens up 2-1. Owens then had an attack error before back-to-back kills from Reigelsperger gave Owens a 4-2 lead. Sinclair answered with two straight, but three more Reigelsperger kills and a block from Purcell gave Owens an 8-4 lead as the teams switched sides.
Down the stretch, Owens got kills from Hesselschwardt, Hartings and Purcell before a bad serve from Sinclair ended the match.
In total, Owens produced a season-high 63 kills. Reigelsperger had a season-high 20, while Hartings added 15 and Purcell had 11. That trio had 46 of the team's 63, while Purcell (.455) and Hesselschwardt (.417) led the team in hitting percentage.
Tylutki, who is getting increased work in the absence of Deanna Smith (Riverview/Riverview, Mich.), had 49 of the team's 55 assists. She has recorded a new season-high in each of the team's past three matches.
As a team, Owens finished with 113 digs, which was seven off the season-high set on Sept. 18 vs Des Moines Area. Gyori's season-high of 39 led the way, while Reigelsperger (15, season-high), Mikesell (12), Miranda Johnson (Whiteford/Ottawa Lake, Mich.) (12, season-high) and Tylutki (10) also produced in double digits. Samantha Reer (Norwalk/St. Paul, Ohio) was next closest with nine.
Mikesell had the team's only two service aces.
Reigelsperger had a team-high five blocks (one solo), while Hartings (two solo) and Tyanna Smith (Bowling Green/Bowling Green, Ohio) (one solo) each added four.
Notes
With her 15 kills tonight, Hartings eclipsed 800 in her career. She now has 814. Reigelsperger now has 793 career kills. Gyori has 470 digs this year as she approaches the half-century mark.