Jennies Volleyball goes 3-1 in Colorado

              An indicator of how good a team is can be obtained when it travels to the Division II Premier Challenge in Denver. Many of the nations top teams fill the field for the best Division II volleyball in the country. The Central Missouri State Jennies showed they belong with a fifth place finish and 3-1 record over the weekend.
            They started the tournament off with a tough task in 4th ranked Concordia-St. Paul, falling 3-0 (30-20, 30-24, 33-31). The Jennies made 26 errors and hit only .142 in the match. Andrea Robertson had 12 kills to lead the Jennies while Katie Tarka nabbed a team-high 17 digs.
            CMSU lost its next two games to start its match against host Regis University, but it came from behind to win the next three and post a 3-2 win (28-30, 18-30, 30-17, 30-17, 15-9). Jillian Ohrman had a career-high 25 kills and hit .522 for CMSU (not to mention a career-high 10 blocks). The Jens forced Regis into 45 hitting errors in the outing while only committing 22. Tarka put up 27 digs while setters Caitlin Pankratz and Ashlei Jandrey had 34 and 21 assists, respectively.
            On Saturday, CMSU battled West Texas A&M to a 3-1 come-from-behind win (26-30, 30-25, 30-24, 30-14). Freshman Lauren Nuckolls had a career-high 17 kills while Ohrman logged 14 in the outing. Jandrey led the assist totals with 31 while Tarka had a tournament-high 34 digs. The Jennies held the Buffs to a .095 hitting percentage to log the victory.
            The Jens played another Texas team in 20th ranked Abilene Christian on the match of the tournament. They tallied another 3-1 win though, taking the first, third and fourth games (30-26, 30-32, 30-21, 30-20). Robertson tagged ACU for 17 kills while Jandrey logged a career-high 36 assists. Ohrman added 13 kills to pace the attack.
            CMSU went 4-1 and Ohrman earned MIAA Hitter of the Week accolades for her efforts. She had had double-figure kills in every match of the season. She averaged 4.79 points per game and hit .344 for the week (82 kills). Earilier in the week she had a 20 kill performance in a win over SIU-Edwardsville.