By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
POST MATCH VIDEO
Champaign, Ill.---Christine Tylutki (Monroe/Monroe, Mich.) totaled 23 kills with a .395 hitting percentage, along with 40 assists, four aces, 14 digs and seven blocks to lead the No. 5 Owens Community College women's volleyball team to a pair of straight set wins over No. 20 Des Moines Area Community College and No. 4 Kirkwood Community College this afternoon.
In doing so, Owens (16-2 overall) exacted a bit of revenge against Kirkwood, who defeated Owens in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II national tournament last year.
Both matches were part of the Parkland Invitational. In winning both, Owens has now won 12 straight matches overall, and they have won 23 consecutive sets. Furthermore, they improved to 5-0 against current NJCAA Division II teams.
Tomorrow, Owens has a showdown with No. 2 Parkland College at 10 a.m. ET. Parkland is the defending national champion, and they are 25-1 overall. Following that match, Owens closes out the Parkland Invitational with a 12 p.m. ET match against Rend Lake College.
MATCH 1: No. 5 Owens d. No. 20 Des Moines Area 25-14, 25-21, 25-18
Tylutki began her day with 10 kills, 16 assists, nine digs and seven blocks to lead Owens to a win in today's opener.
Des Moines Area scored three or more consecutive points just three times during the match. The first set was tied at nine following back-and-forth action early on. After that, Owens scored six of the next seven points to take control of the set.
Erika Angstmann (St. Mary's Memorial/St. Mary's, Ohio) and Tylutki teamed up for a block to start the rally. A short time later, Ashley Pleiman (Fort Loramie/Fort Loramie, Ohio) had back-to-back kills from the left side, and she followed it by teaming with Devon Heitkamp (New Bremen/New Bremen, Ohio) for a block.
A service fault ended the rally, but Owens started another rally where they scored eight of the final 10 points. The set was capped with a kill from Angstmann on the left side off an assist from Tylutki.
The second set saw similar back-and-forth action early, but Des Moines Area held several leads, including a 20-19 advantage after an Owens attack went into the net. After a timeout, Heitkamp and Tyanna Smith (Bowling Green/Bowling Green, Ohio) got back-to-back kills to give Owens the lead, but Des Moines Area responded with a left side kill to knot the score at 21 apiece.
Owens responded by scoring the final four points of the set. The rally started with a Tylutki kill, was followed by two straight Des Moines Area unforced errors, and was ended by a kill from Smith.
In the final set, Owens scored nine of the first 12 points to take control early. Carrigan Gray(Liberty-Benton/Findlay, Ohio) closed the rally with a pair of aces, which forced a Des Moines Area timeout. Out of the timeout, Owens scored five of the next seven points to push its lead to 14-5.
Des Moines Area rallied for five consecutive points, which was the longest point streak Owens allowed all day, but Tylutki ended the rally with a kill that landed on the back line. Moments later, Des Moines Area scored three straight points and pulled as close as two, but Owens closed the match on a 8-2 run. Smith got the match winning kill on the right side.
Aside from Tylutki, Owens got seven kills apiece from Pleiman and Smith, along with five from Angstmann. Gray led the team in assists at 17. She also tied Brooke Gyori (Clay/Oregon, Ohio) for the team-high in aces with two.
Gyori (15) had a team-high 15 digs, although Niki Polce (Huron/New Boston, Mich.) added 10, Tylutki had nine and Gray had eight. Tylutki's block total was a team-high, while Smith added six, including the lone solo block of the match.
Des Moines Area fell to 10-5 overall with the loss.
MATCH 2: No. 5 Owens d. No. 4 Kirkwood 25-17, 25-11, 25-14
Owens hit .400 as a team, led by four players who hit at least .467, and held Kirkwood to a .098 hitting percentage to pick up its 12th straight victory, including its seventh straight in straight sets.
Kirkwood, which never led in the match, trailed Owens 10-9 in the first set and got as close as three late in the set, but Owens picked up an eight point win due to the play of Tylutki down the stretch. After Kirkwood scored three straight points and trailed 19-16, Tylutki smashed home a kill. Two points later, she picked up another kill. Moments later, another kill and an ace from Tylutki ended the set.
Tylutki opened the second set by assisting on a kill from Smith. She ended up getting a kill, an assist or a block on 11 of the points won by Owens in the set, and most of them were big points. Kirkwood tied the set at five before Tylutki assisted on a kill from Smith. Out of a timeout, she team with Pleiman for a block. Two points later, an assist pushed the lead to six.
Kirkwood rallied and pulled within four, but Tylutki set up Heitkamp for a kill, and the play started a 6-0 run that put the set away. She capped the run with a kill off an assist from Gray. Later, her kill put Owens up 12 before an ace from Gyori ended the match.
Outside of Tylutki, who had a season-high 13 kills and hit .478 in the match, Owens got a season-high nine kills from Annie Lindeman (Ottoville/Ottoville, Ohio) and seven apiece from Pleiman, Heitkamp and Smith. Lindeman hit .467, Smith hit .667, Pleiman hit .385 and Heitkamp hit .600.
Tylutki led the team in assists (24) and aces (3), while Gray added 18 assists and two aces. Gyori (17), Angstmann (13) and Gray (10) led the team in digs, while Smith (8) and Pleiman (6) led the way in assists.
Kirkwood, which fell to 17-4 this year, only scored three consecutive points twice during the match. In the final set, they only scored six points on their own and not on Owens errors.
Notes
Due to an IT issue, we will be streaming tomorrow's matches live on our Periscope account, which can be found by searching for Owens Express while on the app. Both of today's matches were also streamed on Periscope due to the same issue. We'll also post the full matches to YouTube at a later time.
You can also get live updates of each match on our Twitter page by finding our handle, @owensexpress.