Shaking off a lackluster effort in the recent tournament trip to Texas, Redlands Community College''s volleyball team returned home to defeat Northern Oklahoma College in four games.
The 25-10/23-25/25-12/25-22 win lifted the Cougars to 16-16 on the season. More importantly, it sealed Redlands into the second seed for the upcoming NJCAA Region II Championships, to be held Nov. 6-7 at Seminole State College.
The Cougars rode the hitting of freshmen Liz Marquez and Melisa Nazarith, as the two combined for 33 of the team's 52 kills. Marquez closed with a team-leading 18 kills, followed by Nazarith with 15. Janie Foreman and Adriana Rodriguez led those in single digits with eight kills each, while Brooke Walford had two and Felicia Ezenwa added one.
The hitting totals were low considering Redlands took 84 shots at the Jets. Walford led all setters in the win with 47.
The Cougars found limited success at the serving line as Walford logged two aces, followed by Foreman, Rodriguez and Krystal Martinez with one each.
Redlands was able to keep the Jets at bay with a strong defensive effort at the net, led by Foreman's seven blocks. Ezenwa added five blocks, while Nazarith had four, Walford had two and one apiece from Marquez and Rodriguez.
Malayna Alleman paced the back row defense with 21 digs, while Rodriguez, Marquez and Martinez had 13 each. Foreman led those in single digits with nine, followed by Walford with eight and seven digs from Nazarith.