Hawks Defeat #4 Belhaven To Advance To CCS Semi-Finals

JACKSON, MISS.- Traveling to Belhaven for the opening round of the CCS tournament, Huntingdon Hawks volleyball(15-19 overall, 9-7 CCS) defeated the home-team Blazers(12-17 overall, 10-6 CCS) 3-1, advancing to the conference semi-finals hosted by Asbury.

The Hawks kicked off the night with an emphatic 25-22 first set victory. Led by a duo of Ashlen Janowski and Morgan Suggs, Huntingdon claimed a 4-0 lead early. The Blazers responded with a run to go ahead 6-5 shortly after, but multiple errors from Belhaven and two kills courtesy of Eva Ellenburg put the Hawks back in front 15-11, putting them in position to take the opening set. 

Continuing to roll, Huntingdon claimed the second set by a score of 25-16. Taking advantage of a match-high 11 errors from the Blazers, the Hawks were able to 16-10 lead midway through the set before outscoring Belhaven 9-6 in the final stages to take the 2-0 lead. Continuing her strong play from the opening set, Janowski led the Hawks with two of the teams six kills on the set.

To force a fourth set, Belhaven stole set three in a 26-24 nailbiter.  Huntingdon claimed a lead early, but the Blazers stormed back to go ahead 17-14. In the final stages of the set, there would be five ties and three lead changes before one of Huntingdon's match high eight errors would give Belhaven the set victory.

To close out the match and move on to the CCS semi-finals, Huntingdon claimed a 28-26 fourth set victory following an extensive back-and-forth affair. The Blazers put together their best offensive attack in the set, earning a 10-4 lead that grew to as much as 13-6 later on. Facing the early deficit, Huntingdon continued to battle, tying the score at 18 following a kill from Izzy Valldeperas. Belhaven continued to push, reaching the brink of victory with a 24-21 lead, but kills from Valldeperas and Lily VanDyke combined with two Blazer errors allowed for Huntingdon to even the score at 24. After trading points over the next three serves, Ellenburg sent one over the net to tie the score at 26 before two Belhaven errors gave Huntingdon the first round win.

Hawk Top Performers

• #23 Ashlen Janowski- 12 kills, 4 digs
• #21 Izzy Valldeperas- 7 kills, 5 digs, 1 solo block, 5 block assists
• #22 Eva Ellenburg- 8 kills, 16 digs

The Hawks return to CCS tournament action on November 15th, traveling to face the #1 seeded Asbury Eagles. Gametime is scheduled for 5:00 PM CT.