Normal, IL 9/24/2022 :
Harper College lost to D2 John Wood 20-25, 29-27, 26-28, 16-25

At Heartland College 1:00 p.m.

In the first set, Harper fell behind 2-6 early… and unfortunately couldn't make up the difference at 9-13, 12-16, 13-18, and got as close as 16-19 in a 20-25 loss.  Gabby Elbrecht had 13 assists. Ava Belluomini had 5 kills, and Natalia Smiech had 4 kills, and led Harper with 5 digs. 

In the second set, things were much closer, there were ties at 3-3, 7-7, 8-8, 14-14, 16-16, 17-17 and 19-19.  But just when you thought John Wood was going to escape with a win when Harper was down 21-24, Harper fought back to tie at 25-25, 26-26 and 27-27 before pulling out a 29-27 win!  Gabby Elbrecht had an astounding 17 assists in this set, led by Natalia Smiech with 6 kills and Eden Suh with 4 kills.  Satcy Maimur got hot and had 4 kills.  Natalia Smiech and Alyssa Rodda each had 7 digs.  Gabby Elbrecht's serving was outstanding… she was 9-10.

In the third set, Harper fell way behind at 0-6.  However, Harper tied the score quickly at 9-9 and things were interesting the rest of the way at 10-10, 11-11, 12-12, 16-16, 18-18, when Harper predictably fell behind 18-21 again, but closed to 22-23 and 24-24, 25-25 and 26-26 before this time John Wood won the last 2 points to win 26-28, and lead 2-1 in sets going into set 4.  Ava Belluomini had 6 kills, and Katie Hoffman had 3 kills in this tough nail-biter.  More of a defensive set, Alyssa Rodda led Harper with 9 digs, and and Natalia Smiech had 7 and CanaJJones had 7.  Setter Gabby Elbrecht had 6 digs.  Gabby Elbrecht was 6-6 serving.

Set four, Harper had slim leads at 3-1, 8-4 and 10-5 and things were looking good for a 5^th and deciding set, but Harper allowed John Wood to tie the score at 11-11. Harper continued to slide to 12-16 and 14-18 on the way to a bad 16-25 loss.  Natalia Smiech and Ava Belluomini each had 3 kills. Only Eden Suh had another kill in this disappointing final set.  Alyssa Rodda led Harper with 6 digs.

This is only the second time Harper College has ever played John Wood in Volleyball.  Harper is now 1-1 against them.  Harper won last year at Heartland, but lost this year.

Harper College lost to D2 #6 Heartland 16-25, 14-25, 16-25

At Heartland College 3:00 p.m.

In the first set, while playing well against a very strong hitting and good defensive team, Harper fell behind 13-17, on the way to a 16-25 loss.  Natalia Smiech had 3 kills and Ava Belluomini had 3 kills.  Setter Gabby Elbrecht led Harper with 5 digs. 

In the second set, Harper played well again, but continued to lose points at 4-10 and 7-16.  Harper outscored Heartland 7-6 for a while to close a bit to 14-22 on the way to a 14-25 loss.  Natalia Smiech led Harper with 4 kills.  Alyssa Rodda led Harper with 7 digs.  Gabby Elbrecht was 8-9 serving with an ace.

In the final set, there were ties early at 2-2 and 5-5. Harper stayed close until 11-13, but then fell behind 12-20 for a 16-25 loss.    Alyssa Rodda led Harper with 7 digs, again.  Natalia Smiech was 4-4 serving with an ace.

Next match will be at College of DuPage on Tuesday, September 27. Game time will be 7:00 p.m.;  not the usual 6:00 p.m.  College of DuPage [16-2] is currently ranked #2 in the NJCAA and has played a very difficult schedule is inexplicably ranked behind Pennsylvania's Butler College [8-2], who has not been tested by any of the top teams; and is coming off a 3-0 win over conference foe Madison College.