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Mountain Madness offered dream start for Shorter Volleyball
By Matt Green
MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. -- They came, they saw, they conquered. It was another successful opening weekend in Milligan College, Tenn., for the Shorter University volleyball squad.
For the second straight year, the Lady Hawks completed a perfect 4-0 stay at the Milligan Mountain Madness Invitational, handling Indiana-Southeast, host Milligan and future NCAA Division II Gulf South Conference mate Union (Tenn.) in straight sets before closing out the invitational with an impressive 3-1 win over Freed-Hardeman, a program that received 37 votes in the 2011 NAIA Volleyball Preseason Top 25 Coaches Poll.
The icing on the cake came as two Lady Hawks took home All-Tournament honors, with redshirt freshman Jasmine Crook landing on the All-Tourney team and senior Jessica Cooper claiming Tournament Most Valuable Player honors on her father's birthday.
Crook, who sat out the 2010 season only to watch Shorter get denied a NAIA National Tournament berth despite a 26-6 overall record, racked up 47 kills in her first four collegiate matches. She hit .323 on 99 attacks, produced double figure kills in three of Shorter's four matches and displayed her versatility by also recording 25 digs and five blocks on the weekend.
Cooper, a junior college transfer suiting up for her second and final season with the Lady Hawks and only her fourth season ever of competitive volleyball, was the epitome of efficiency in Milligan College, Tenn.
The Grant, Ala., native averaged 10 kills a match through four contests, including 12 kills against just two errors in Shorter's win over Freed-Hardeman. Cooper hit a blistering .442 with 40 kills and six errors -- the .442 hitting percentage currently ranks seventh in the country -- while also compiling 14 blocks.
Several other Lady Hawks impressed in their 2011 debuts.
Junior Jordan Corder, the two-time reigning Setter of the Year in the Southern States Athletic Conference, finished the weekend with 113 assists despite sitting out of Shorter's season opener against Indiana-Southeast. Corder, who ranks second on Shorter's all-time assists list, averaged 15.5 assists per set at Milligan, a pace that would put her within striking distance of Kristy Walker's all-time assists record at the end of 2011.
Junior and two-time All-SSAC selection Loren Olive was her normal do-it-all self for the Lady Hawks, ending the weekend with 22 kills, 39 digs, six aces and six blocks. Olive becomes the first player in school history to accumulate 500 kills, 500 digs, 100 assists and 100 aces in her career and now stands 56 aces short of tying former Lady Hawk Katie Van Hofwegen for No. 1 on Shorter's all-time service ace list.
Junior Leslie Welch had a solid weekend with 25 kills, transfer Tanequa Whitman was phenomenal as a defensive specialist with a team-high 45 digs to go along with five aces and true freshman Megan Pepe showed little sign of first-game jitters while filling in for Corder at setter in the opener to the tune of 37 assists.
True freshman right side hitter Tori Bradley showed glimpses of greatness in her first collegiate action. The 6-foot-2 native of Florence, Ala., shook off a slow start on Friday to put together two outstanding performances on Saturday, closing out the weekend with a team-high 15 kills in Shorter's win over Freed-Hardeman. She currently ranks third on the team with 38 kills.
