Yeowomen Claim Tournament Championship

Alana Kenmore earns tournament MVP honors

While most returning students were just arriving last Friday, the Oberlin Womenıs Volleyball team was warming up to make a little bit of history.

Oberlin has been hosting the Oberlin Invitational for a few years now, and has never pulled away with the championship. This year the team felt that that trend needed to end.

On Sept. 1, the team met up with their invitational contenders. Their opponents consisted of Bethany College, The College of Wooster and the University of Pittsburgh-Johnston.

³It was really frustrating to come out Saturday morning and lose to Wooster when I knew we could play so much better than we were,² said senior Carrie Carter about her teamıs opening match.

The next day all four teams played in semi-final matches to decide who would play in the Championship Game. Oberlinıs semi-final match-up was with Bethany College. After taking the first two sets in stellar fashion, the women lost the third set, but returned in the fourth to win the game and send Bethany back to West Virginia. With Wooster also winning their semi-final match, the stage was set to give Oberlin a chance to not only redeem their loss of only a day ago, but also to win their own invitational.

Oberlin opened the match with a 15-11 set that placed them one game ahead of their Wooster rivals. The Scots came back in the second set with a closely fought match beating Oberlin 16-14. Now tied, the Oberlin squad unleashed on their rivals with wins of 15-12 and 15-9, proving that the loss just a day before had been a fluke.

After all the dust had settled, the Yeowomen walked away with a home tournament championship and a record of 4 - 1.

On Wednesday, the Oberlin squad traveled to John Carroll University in an attempt to keep the momentum going from the previous week. Despite this, the squad did not appear to be quite the same one seen just a few days prior.

The game opened up with John Carroll firing into the Oberlin team and winning the first set 15-0. The second set of the match bore some improvement though the team still fell to a score of 15-3. In the third set, the Yeowomen appeared much more alive and kept the game close. Despite the team effort, it would prove too late as JCU dashed the Oberlinıs hopes winning the third and final set 15-9 to win the match.

The team is under new leadership this year as Coach Elizabeth Ramsey takes the helm and attempts to improve the teamıs 9-23 overall record from last year. Coach Ramsey comes to Oberlin after working as assistant coach to the University of Nevadaıs volleyball team and more recently as assistant coach to Sonoma State University for two years.

The team also retains Assistant Coach Joanna Wells, who has already been at Oberlin for a year serving as both Assistant Coach to Womenıs Volleyball and as the Associate Head Softball Coach.

The team holds on to returning sophomore Mariana Padias, juniors Anna Ruth, Mai-Lynn Grajewski, and Alana Kenmore, and seniors Carrie Carter and Sarah Breon. The returners should help give the team a strong veteran line-up.

New members to this yearıs squad include first-years Eden Trenor, Adrienne Zoller, Darci Leonhart and sophomore Tammy Medley.

The Yeowomen left yesterday with the football team for California to meet Pomona-Pitzer on their home turf.

As for the rest of the season, Mariana Padias put it best when she said, ³This team has great potential. Our freshman are already playing well and are up to speed with coachıs expectations as well as our own. We all get along very well together and I think that helps us tremendously when we play.²

She may very well be right. Oberlin has proven to some that they are capable of winning with sheer determination as evidenced by their game against Wooster.