Thresher spikers win on senior night

By Mark Schnabel
Newton Kansan
The Bethel College volleyball team closed out the regular season with a three-game win over McPherson College Thursday in Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference play at Thresher Gym.
Bethel won the match 25-19, 25-18, 25-20. Bethel ends the regular season 16-14, 13-5 in KCAC play. McPherson ends the regular season 7-19, 6-12 in the KCAC. Bethel moves into a tie for third place in the conference, but will hold the fourth seed in the post-season tournament.
“It’s nice to have a match like we had tonight,” Bethel coach Chad Schilling said. “We’ll have two sets like that and give up the third. Then we’d have a crazy fourth set. It was nice to have a match like this on senior night. We get to send the two seniors out in style.”
Bethel’s two seniors are opposite side hitter Christy Weems of Topeka and defensive specialist Billye Jerde, a Newton High School graduate.
Weems had nine kills. Jerde went 12 for 12 serving with an ace and six digs.
“That was awesome,” Jerde said. “We came out and did what we wanted to do. It’s been really exciting. We’ve been a dominating team all four years. I have really loved it. We’re going to miss it.
“The team is starting to come together at the end. (A late season slump) meant we had to pick it up a notch. We’re going to come at teams.”
Kristen Lohaus had eight kills and six blocks. Whitney Hiebner had three aces. Addison Wolf had 10 digs.
Alyssa Schrag had 26 assists. Schrag, a sophomore from Moundridge, took over the setting role from Morgan Peters due to academic issues.
“We had to change some things in the lineup and had to work hard in the lineup,” Schilling said. “Alyssa is getting good reps. Our hitters are starting to adjust. We’re starting to figure each other out again.”
Bethel jumped to a 12-7 lead in the first game. After a McPherson time out, the Threshers added two more points. Bethel’s lead was between eight and five points. McPherson rallied to within four points, 23-19, forcing a Thresher time out. A Schrag dump for a kill and a McPherson hitting violation, ended the game.
Bethel jumped out 7-2 in the second game, holding on the rest of the way.
Bethel fell behind in the third game 4-1, but tied it up 9-9. The Threshers made another run and held off a late Bulldog comeback.
Bethel plays Ottawa at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the KCAC post-season quarterfinals at Thresher Gym. Bethel won both matches in the regular season, but the second match went four games.
“We need to rest a little bit,” Schilling said. “We’ve played a lot of volleyball the past couple of weeks. We just have to come ready to put teams away when we have the opportunity. That’s what put us in the spot we’re in. We want to be the spoiler in the tournament. I think we have the talent to do that.
“We need to pass well. We need to put away the opportunities when we have them.”