UKIAH – Collegiate volleyball on a Halloween night provided plenty of thrills as the Mendocino College Women’s Volleyball team battled Laney College of Oakland to a four-set victory: 22-30, 32-30, 30-23 and 31-29.

The host Eagles started slowly and watched a 2-9 Laney club roll past them in game one, before swapping the next three games.

Laney was led by the talented and athletic Jaydelynn Suava, who seemed to be everywhere on the court.

Throughout the night, the lead changed hands often and Mendocino found it very difficult to put away the scrappy Laney team.

“It was pretty scary. We escaped with a win, which is great, but we almost allowed this to go to a fifth game. If I was in the stands, it probably would have been entertaining with all of the back and forth. To me, it wasn’t always pretty but give our ladies credit for pulling out a win,” said Mendocino Head Coach Ori Polkinghorne.

Fortunately for the Eagles, Freshman Shana Hiatt (Clear Lake) had one of her best performances of the year, collecting 11 kills, 11 digs, three blocks and two aces.

“She was the difference for us tonight. Shana had great energy and rhythm at the net, which is something we’ve been working on – it just clicked and we sure needed her effort,” said Polkinghorne.

Other top players for the Eagles were sophomore middle hitter Jamie Brown (Potter Valley) who racked up 14 kills in 27 attempts, in addition to her solid overall play.

Sophomore setter Jenny Stark (Clear Lake) pushed out 33 assists to lead the Eagles’ offense.

The Mendocino defense was anchored by Freshman Angela Newell (Fort Bragg) who dug up six balls on top of passing well in serve-receive. Newell also chipped in six kills.

The Eagles are now 6-5 in the Bay Valley Conference and wrap up their 2007 home schedule Friday night when they host first-place Napa Valley.

The match starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Mendocino College gym.

 

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