Yellow Jackets to Face CNU for Trip to St. Louis

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. --- The Randolph-Macon College Volleyball knocked off No. 9 Colorado College, 3-0, Saturday afternoon to advance to the Regional Finals of the 2010 NCAA Division III Volleyball Tournament.

R-MC will take on #5 Christopher Newport at 2:00 p.m. Sunday.  The winner of that match will advance to the eight-team National Championship Round in St. Louis next week.

The win for R-MC ties a school record with 27 and the Tigers are the highest nationally-ranked opponent the Jackets have defeated in program's 16-year history.

The Yellow Jackets won by game scores of 25-18, 25-23 and punched their ticked to the first Regional Final in school history with a 25-21 win in game three.

Jessica Sears, who had a game-high 13 kills to go along with 15 digs on the defensive side of the net, led the Randolph-Macon attack.

The Yellow Jackets got 17 assists and 13 digs from setter Courtney Anderson, while Sam Block dished out 10 assists of her own. Marli Dabareiner also chipped in with 19 sotps defensively as well.

Randolph-Macon also got nine kills form Raena Winton and six strikes form Tori Puryear.

Colorado College, which received a first-round bye and entered the regional as the top-seed, finishes it season with a 30-7 record.

The Jackets came out of the gates strong, building a 17-11 lead in game one after Anderson set up Puryear for a kill. R-MC then pushed the lead to 21-11 on another kill by Puryear, before it eventually finished the game off with a 25-18 win.

In game two, Colorado rallied going up 16-11, before the Jackets won 11 of the next 17 points, tying the game at 22-22 on an Anderson service ace.

A kill by Winton put R-MC up 23-22 before the Tigers tied it 23-23 on the following point. The Jackets then closed out the game on back-to-back kills by Winton and Mallory Carter.

With the score tied at 19-19 in game three, R-MC reeled off four straight points to take a 23-19 advantage. CC scored the next two points to cut its deficit to 23-21, before Winton and Carter again each had kills to send the Jackets to the win.

This release is courtesy of the Randolph-Macon College sports information department.