Thresher Volleyball Sweeps Division Two Schools
“D2 who?” Bethel College volleyball team takes down the Rangers, and Cowgirls in the Tiger Classic
HAYS— On Sept. 11, the volleyball team of Bethel College (BC) took off for the Tiger Classic, still on the road, for one of the toughest preseasons the program has seen thus far. There, they played two National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division Two schools: Northwestern Oklahoma State University (NWOSU) and New Mexico Highlands. Coming off a very eventful weekend in McPherson for the McPherson Volleyball Invitational, going 2-1, volleyball seemed ready to face some more tough opponents.
The Threshers started against NWOSU (previously 1-4 overall), coming off a three-game losing streak. Bethel began the game strong and took the first set, 25-15. They continued fighting, taking the next two sets, 25-18 and 25-13, making it the third sweep for them this season. The team scored a combined .368 hitting percentage, with Cameron Offerle leading the way with twenty kills, Darla Crow contributing eight, and Kamryn Hill contributing six.
BC continued against New Mexico Highlands (previously 3-3 overall), who seemed stronger than NWOSU, but that was no problem for the Threshers. The first set going to BC, 20-25, and the second set seemed to become a battle of who was going to win by two first, landing in BC’s favor 27-25. The match ended in the third set with a score of 25-20. Hitting .151 as a team, Cameron Offerle with 16 kills, and Kamryn Hill and Landree Merriman with 5 each. Many intense rallies happened, but they seemed to figure it out in the end, with positive energy filling the court and bench.
Complete sweeps have been something the Threshers have been struggling with lately, but dominating the competition against division two schools shows that no one is outworking them.
When asked middle blocker Alayna Vines, a junior from Lawton, Okla., about how she was feeling about going up against division two schools, she said,
“D2 who? It’s just volleyball.”
Head coach Adrianna Leake, on the other hand, had some worries about the competition:
“I didn’t anticipate the injuries that we had leading up to it, so there was a point that I was unsure of how we would perform, but it was a really cool thing to do—to sweep two D2 teams as an NAIA school.”
Thresher volleyball holds an overall record of 9-7 as of late but continues to fight against tough opponents. Their season officially starts Sept. 24, at 7 p.m. against rival Tabor College at Thresher gym.
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