At Owens Invitational – September 1-2, 2023
Harper traveled to Owens Community College near Toledo, Ohio, well, really Perrysburg, OH, to play four high-level matches this weekend. On Friday, September 1st, Harper defeated DII Oakland, Michigan, in 3 straight sets; and then lost to talented DII Muskegon, Michigan, in a very close 5-set match.

On Saturday, Harper College lost to DIII Delta, Michigan, who had defeated #2 Owens the day before, and then lost to host DIII #2 Owens Community College, which was also a professionally streamed match.  Delta started up their volleyball program again last year after an 11-year hiatus.
 
DIII Harper College defeated DII Oakland College 25-18, 25-17, 25-10
Friday, Sept 1, 1:30 p.m. at Owens Community College: Harper won this match handily. In the first set, Harper started out with the lead at 4-2. Oakland closed to 9-9. Harper jumped ahead 11-9, and stretched the lead to 17-11 and 19-14 before winning 25-17. In the second set, Harper led 4-2, again, but fell behind quickly at 5-8. Harper caught up right away at 10-9. Harper extended the lead to 17-10 behind Jasmine Nitu's serves. Harper then led 22-13 and won 25-14. In the last set, Harper jumped out with leads of 5-0, and 11-1, again behind Jasmine Nitu's serving.  Harper continued to pour it on 14-3 and 18-6, then 23-10 before winning the last set.

DIII Harper College lost to DII Muskegon College 25-23, 16-25, 24-26, 25-24, 12-15
Friday, Sept 1, 5:00 p.m. at Owens Community College: This was an exciting 5-set match against a very talented Muskegon team. In the first set, Harper fell behind 9-12 which included 3 missed serves. Harper fell behind further at 10-15 and 13-17, but caught up at 17-17 and 20-20. Harper took a small lead at 23-21 despite now having missed 6 serves, and won 25-23. In the second set, Harper fell behind 2-5, 7-14 and lost 16-25. Harper was never actually in this set.  In the third set, it was close early with ties at 6-6 and 9-9. Harper took a 13-9 and 20-15 lead, but that lead evaporated at 21-21. There was another tie at 23-23. At 23-24, Claudia Lysek hit a ball that was touched at the net and landed 2-feet in on the other side. The line judge in front of the opponents bench was clearly not paying attending and called it out at the urging of the other team. The ref decided the game was over at that point, DESPITE the line judge on THIS side saying the ball was touched. Unbelievable crazy ending. Harper is now down 1-2 in sets. In the 4th set, another close heavyweight bout continued… there were ties at 5-5, 8-8, and then again at 12-12… Harper had a slim lead at 16-14, and 20-17. On the next point, Harper thought we had won the point but there was an amazing pancake by Muskegon which kept the point alive, and Muskegon ended up winning the point… At this point, Harper led 21-18. Muskegon tied the score at 21-21 and 22-22, and took a 22-23 lead when Harper missed a serve. Taylor Knuth knotted the score with a kill at 23-23, and Regina Anelli finished the game with 2 consecutive aces to win 25-23. That all set up a deciding set 5!  In thedeciding set 5, Harper led 5-3, 8-5, 10-7 and 11-9, but Muskegon won the last 6 of 7 points to win 12-15.

DIII Harper College lost to DIII Delta 25-27, 23-25, 25-16, 12-25
Saturday, Sept 2, 10:45 a.m. at Owens Community College: Harper played Delta College for the first time in volleyball history. Delta had unexpectedly defeated #2 Owens College the day before. In the first set, Harper led 5-3 and 11-9. Then, extended the lead to 19-11 and 24-15 when Harper missed the serve on game point. However, Delta came storming back with a combination of terrific defense and unforced Harper errors and outscored Harper the next 12 of 13 points to come back and win 25-27! This was a large deficit for Delta to overcome, and a BAD loss for Harper.  In the second set, there were many ties, including 2-2, 7-7, 10-10, 12-12, 14-14, and 15-15. Finally, Harper took a 20-16 lead.  Harper held the lead until Delta caught up at 22-22. Harper took the lead again, 23-22 lead on a Stacy Maimur kill. Then Knuth hit one out to tie 23-23. Delta won the last 2 points to win 23-25 and take a two-set lead in the match. In the 3rd set, Harper took a more commanding lead at 9-3… and then 17-7, 22-15 and left no doubt with a 25-16 win. However, in the final set, Harper fell behind 2-9, 5-15 on the way to an uninspired 12-25 loss.

DIII Harper College lost to DIII #2 Owens College 25-20, 17-25, 18-25, 25-23, 12-15
Saturday, Sept 2, 2023, Perrysburg, OH: Now this match was an instant classic, AND was professionally streamed, complete with multiple cameras and close ups. In the first set, Harper took command at 9-4, and essentially extended that lead to 15-9, and 19-13 before winning 25-20. In the second set there were MANY ties… 3-3, 4-4, 6-6, 7-7, 8-8, 9-9, 10-10, 12-12, 14-14, 15-15 and 16 16.  But Harper lost the last 9 of 10 points to lose 17-25. In the third set, Harper was never really in it at 7-12, 10-20, for an 18-25 loss. In the fourth set; Harper played much better and fought off some 'interesting' line judging…  The score was tied at 2-2 and 9-9, before Harper took leads at 12-9, 15-10 and 18-12.  Owens pulled close to 24-22, but fell to Harper 25-23. In the fifth and final set, all things were going well for Harper with leads at 6-1 and 10-3, when an Owens serve sailed out of bounds but was called in by the line judge and not overruled by the ref. So, Harper was left with a commanding 10-4 lead, but a determined Owens team closed the score to 11-8, and then 12-12 before Harper lost 12-15. Owens earned the last 7 of 8 points to win this very, very, exciting match!


Harper Volleyball plays next at the Rochester Community and Technical College Volleyball Invitational on Friday, September 8th.