Show I Bruins To Host Regional Tournament I By Charles Barnard Contributing Writer The Bruins volleyball team finished their home season with wins over Snow and Dixie With the wins the Bruins clinched the home court advantage for the regional tournament This year the regional tournament is hosted by the winner of the Southern Division of the Scenic West Athletic Conference in which is a member Snow was the Bruins first opponent of the weekend The first match was not good for forthe forthe forthe the Bruins They came out slow and made many hitting mistakes that allowed the Badgers to jump out to a abig abig abig big lead Finally the Bruins started to play up the their potential as they fought their way back into the game but it was too little too late as the Badgers won the first game 15 Game two started off completely completely completely com com- opposite opposite opposite site of game one as the Bruins ran off eight I straight points to start the game With the momentum gone Snow could not mount an attack as the Bruins ran off another 7 0 run The final score of game two was 15 Freshmen Rachel Ariotti stepped to the forefront as she had two monster spikes as well as great defense and serving Game three was another slow start for the Bruins Unforced errors and poor communication hurt the Bruins Finally the ranked Bruins started to show why they are nationally ranked They eliminated their errors and started to roll Snow just did not have enough fire power to match the Bruins outside hitters finished off the Badgers 15 The Bruins had no problem in game four They came out fast and controlled controlled controlled con con- trolled the game Snow could close in inon inon inon on the Bruins The final score was 15 10 but the game was not as close as the score indi indi- Jeanette Graves led the team with 16 kills and Taffy Smart added another eight Rocky Johnson had a stellar defensive game with 12 digs Kim Nielsen led the team with 19 assists The Bruins other opponent for the weekend was the Dixie Rebels The Bruins started game one very quickly as they jumped out to a 7 0 lead Then they fell apart Poor play by the Bruins allow for the Rebels to jump out to a abig abig abig big lead As with the game against Snow the Bruins try to come back but could not overcome the big lead as the Write it down They are going to lose Kim Nielsen Co-captain Co Rebels won the first game 15 Game two started just like the first game with the Bruins i tJ j jumping u m p pIn i n g out to a quick lead Dixie's blocking line gave the Bruins many problems Finally big hitters found their stroke and started to pound away A Dixie Dixi run made the game close but the Bruins pull out a 15 13 victory Game three was no different than the first two as the Bruins continued the trend of a fast start jumping to a 40 40 4 0 o lead defense stepped it up a notch and the Bruins finish off the Rebels with a 11 0 run and a 4 15 win Game four was different as it was Dixie who jumped on the board first But then the Bruins went on an amazing amazing amazing ing 14 0 run that put the game away S V S t 1 1 4 II I I 1 PI z f aM Tm 4 t 4 1 l Photo by Chari Charie Charles es Barnard Bruins Co-C Co Captain Co-Captain Kim N ellsen leads th the e t team earn into battle e. e Johnson showed some amazing serves as she racked up four consecutive aces in the run The Bruins finish off the Rebels 15 Graves led the team with 16 kills and Smart added 12 more Ariotti continued continued continued con con- her fine play with eight kills seven digs and four aces Nielsen set setup setup setup up 22 assists with Melissa Risher adding 16 more With the win over Dixie the Bruins will host the regional tournament that will be held on Nov 13 Its great that the tournament willbe will willbe willbe be held here said Co-Captain Co Kim Nielsen I hope we will have a lot of people here The biggest challenge in the regional region region- al tournament will come from four time defending National Champions College of Southern Idaho I think we can win said Nielsen I feel we are really starting to gel as a team When asked if will finally get the monkey of off their backs has never beaten Nielsen said Write it down they are going to lose The game with Dixie marked the thelast thelast thelast last regular season home game for many of the players Before the game gifts were given out to by the coaches to all the sophomores The sophomores included Jeanette Graves Rocky Johnson Taffy Smart Melissa Regan Taylor Sarah r Hoehne Jeanne Pratt and Kim Nielsen Weve had a successful program and its going to be hard not to be here next year said |