(Sugar Grove, IL.) - In their final match of the three-day Chiefs' Crossover Tournament, Waubonsee Community College ran into a team that has been just as hot as they have. Just like the Chiefs, Carl Sandburg College (16-4) entered the match with a seven-game winning streak. In a showdown between the two teams that have emerged as this year's front runners in the NJCAA's Region IV it was the Chargers who came out on top. Sandburg won three close games 25-20, 29-27 and 25-23 to sweep the Chiefs (13-5) and halt their hot streak.
Service errors proved costly for the Chiefs as they committed 13 of them during the match. It has been one of the Chiefs' few shortcomings thus far this season. Waubonsee has committed 176 service errors overall, averaging nearly 10 per match, and lead the nation with 378 total errors. However, the Chiefs are also fourth nationally among all NJCAA Division II teams with 153 service aces, second in solo blocks with 151, second in points with 1094.5, fourth in kills with 751, fourth in total blocks with 191, and in the top-15 nationally in assists and digs. It has all added up to a pretty good run to this point for head coach Steve Kish's squad.
Against Sandburg Waubonsee found itself facing a team with a similar style of play. The Chargers jumped out to an early lead in game one and held off the Chiefs throughout to win by five points. In the pivitol second game the score was tied at 19-all. After an incredible diving save by the Chargers' Haley Stevenson kept the ball in play during a prolonged volley, Natalie Jones eventually got the point for Waubonsee with a solo block. From that point on neither team had more than a one-point advantage until the Chargers won it on a kill by Peyton Bowman. Waubonsee had a chance to win it reaching game-point with a 24-23 lead, but a service error tied the score at 24.
In the third game Sandburg scored the first two points on blocks before Anna Friedlund delivered back-to-back aces to put the Chiefs in front 3-2. Waubonsee led all the way until Sandburg ran off five straight points to surge ahead 17-14. The Chiefs were never able to regain the lead after that. A pair of service errors twice thwarted Waubonsee from getting within a point. The Chiefs then got three straight kills from the right side, one by Maizy Larson and two by Sidney Fedor to knot the score at 23. But the Chargers answered with a kill by Stevenson and then a double hit by Waubonsee ended the match.
Fedor finished with a dozen kills, while Larson tallied eight kills and 10 digs, and Jones booked 34 assists and three solo blocks. Kayla Battle chipped in with six kills and three solo blocks, Friedlund contributed six kills and three service aces, and Kendall Iversen was credited with 12 digs.