By Marissa VanWingen, The Times Citizen (Photo by Marissa VanWingen/Times Citizen)
Momentum shifts happen in an instant during volleyball matches.
At times it felt like Ellsworth Community College had all of the push on their side. And then quickly, Western Iowa Technical College turned on the heat to erase large deficits. Eventually, the Panthers were able to take control and get the four-set win at home 25-16, 25-18, 19-25, 28-26.
After dropping the third game, ECC (13-8, 3-3) came out on fire in the fourth. Ludine Charron served up five ace serves in a row as the Panthers built a 7-0 advantage. The lead was 9-1 on a Juliana Nunez tip, but the Comets (13-9, 4-2) steadily came back and knotted the game at 19-19 for the first time. The two would be even six more times, with ECC coming out ahead all but one of those times. A Taylor Ross hit set up match point (24-22) for the hosts before WIT got the ball back on a hit. Then one of their eight blocks knotted the match at 24-24. The Panthers went back on top with an Ana Cuartero hit but a blocking error evened the mark once again. A Comet ace allowed them to take their first advantage of the set.
An unforced error by the visitors knotted the score and then a Cuartero hit gave the home team match point once again. Elitsa Peneva served up an ace to win the match (28-26).
ECC never trailed in the opening game, and the final even score was at 10-10 before an Adriana Tiedt hit gave the Panthers the advantage. Late, ECC scored five in a row, with back-to-back aces from Charron to lead 24-16 and won it on a service error by the visitors.
The hosts were able to go up 2-0 after winning the second. The Panthers never trailed in the second game and went up by as many as eight on a Cuartero hit. WIT held off set point twice before Anthea Deweer had a kill to win it.
In the third game, the Comets took an early lead and scored six in a row to take the 8-3 lead. The largest ECC deficit was six on a WIT stop (18-12) before Deweer got a block of her own. The Panthers cut the difference to two, forcing a Comet timeout. That would be the closest they would get as WIT won it on back-to-back ECC errors to force a fourth game.
For more photos from Wednesday's match, click here: https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwww.timescitizen.com%2fgallery%2f10-2-24-ecc-vs-western-iowa-tech-volleyball%2fcollection_eabc2200-812d-11ef-81f1-ff1434b23a30.html%231&c=E,1,57vkt0skFPxYTSWNRHVV2G1vF_r8vbFcUmpkcaAq-rtz-yArsHs1GUBfWZjQ81RKX4bY8RiieMBvd8OP9KSdUbztzqmFGSu0ox3aRc0mCPo,&typo=1
ICCAC Volleyball
Wednesday at Iowa Falls
WIT: 16 • 18 • 25 • 26
ECC: 25 • 25 • 19 • 28
ECC Stats:
Kills: Ana Cuartero 15; Juliana Nunez 12; Taylor Ross 11; Adriana Tiedt 9; Anthea Deweer 4; Elitsa Peneva 3.
Assists: Peneva 49; Ludine Charron 2; Tiedt 1; Nunez 1.
Digs: Charron 21; Cuartero 18; Tiedt 11; Nunez 9; Peneva 8; Deweer 4; Ross 3.
Blocks: Deweer 2; Tiedt 1.5; Ross 1.5; Peneva 1.
Aces: Charron 8; Nunez 2; Cuartero 2; Peneva 2; Gabby Burton 1.
The Ellsworth Community College Panthers compete in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) and is a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association. Ellsworth Community College is a member of the Iowa Valley Community College District.