SUWANEE, Ga. - With the final weekend of conference play complete, the seeds have now been set for the 2010 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference volleyball championship tournament Nov. 5-6 in San Antonio, Texas. The top four seeds include Colorado College, Southwestern, DePauw and Trinity.

AROUND THE SCAC

Austin College went 4-0 during the week to improve to 26-6 overall this season. The ‘Roos picked up a 3-1 win on the road at UT-Tyler before topping East Texas Baptist, Central Baptist College and the University of Dallas all by scores of 3-0. Jordan Anderton had a strong week from her setting position, totaling 47 assists against UT-Tyler, 33 against ETBU, and 39 against Dallas. She also had 10 in just one set against Central Baptist to give her an average of 11.7 assists-per-set for the week. Jessi Fleming totaled 49 kills in the four matches for an average of 4.45 kills-per-set for the week. The ‘Roos wrap up the regular season this weekend by traveling to the Southwestern Invitational Tournament.
  
Birmingham-Southern traveled to Atlanta for the second SCAC East/Central Crossover, hosted by Oglethorpe. On Saturday, the Panthers split with a 3-1 victory against Centre and a 3-1 loss to DePauw. On Sunday, BSC won both its matches with a sweep of Sewanee and an exciting 3-2 win over Rhodes. The Panthers are now 23-8 on the season. Junior Hope Harris leads the team with 2.96 kills per set, followed closely by freshman Alex Bothe with 2.90 kills per set. Senior Christine Denning leads with 9.65 assists per set, and senior Jennifer McKannan leads with 5.97 digs per set.

No. 9 Colorado College won all four of its matches, including a pair of against Occidental College, the No. 3 team in the West Region, en route to the 2010 Marriott Colorado Springs Spike It Up Classic championship. Tournament MVP Meredith Ballard put down 15 kills to lead CC to a 3-1 victory over Occidental in the title match. Emily Perkins recorded 14 kills and 15 digs to post her 11th double-double of the season, while Erika Pirotte added 14 kills and 10 digs for her fourth double-double. Perkins recorded her first career triple-double to lead CC to a 3-0 victory over Occidental on Friday night. Perkins had 11 kills, 10 blocks and 10 digs. Her nine block assists are a single-match high, while her 10 total blocks matches her best set two other times. CC travels to Colorado Christian University on Thursday for its only match of the week.

DePauw improved to 20-11 overall and finished SCAC play at 11-4 after sweeping all four matches. The Tigers opened with a 3-0 win over Millsaps followed by a 3-1 victory over Birmingham-Southern. On Sunday, DePauw topped Hendrix 3-2 and blanked Sewanee 3-0. For the weekend, Annie  Collier led the way with 2.7 kills per set and a .304 hitting percentage. Brianna Holder totaled 151 assists (10.1/set), while Kylee Lehrman totaled 14 service aces. Madison Hoenig averaged 5.9 digs and Kristen Chynoweth and Hannah Nelson each had 1.0 blocks/set. The Tigers averaged 11.2 kills per set and totaled 35 aces.
  
Hendrix split their final weekend of SCAC play at the Central vs. East Crossover, hosted by Oglethorpe on Saturday and Sunday. Hendrix earned its second and third conference wins of the season in straight sets over Oglethorpe and Sewanee on Saturday. Hendrix also extended its overall win streak to three games, the third three-game stretch of the season. The Warriors suffered a pair of 3-2 set backs on their final day to DePauw and Millsaps. The Warriors finished their conference schedule at 12-23 overall and 3-12 in SCAC play. Against Oglethorpe, outside hitter Becca Clancy racked in a team-high 13 kills and first year middle blocker Alyssa Jaksich was in on a career-best seven blocks.

Millsaps went 3-2 this week, including a split in conference play at Oglethorpe, with wins over Mississippi College, Oglethorpe, and Hendrix. The Majors took cross-town rival MC easily on Wednesday night in their final home match, 3-0. They then traveled over to Atlanta for the East/Central Cross Divisional on Saturday and Sunday. The Majors dropped both matches on Saturday, falling first to DePauw 3-0 and then 3-2 to Centre in the evening match. Sunday saw the Majors rebound for a pair of wins over host Oglethorpe 3-0 and then Hendrix 3-2. Kasey Laird paced the Majors on the week with 55 kills over the five matches for a .250 hitting percentage. She also led the defensive effort with 21 total blocks and 63 digs. The Majors will travel up to St. Louis this weekend to participate in the Washington University Tournament on Friday and Saturday.

Oglethorpe hosted the SCAC East-Central Cross this past weekend. The Petrels were swept in four matches against Hendrix, Rhodes, Millsaps and Centre to bring their record to 7-21 on the season. Oglethorpe is back in action on Wednesday when they travel to face LaGrange College.

Rhodes picked up two more wins on the season with victories against Sewanee and Oglethorpe on the first day of SCAC East-Central Divisional play. The Lynx defeated Sewanee in three straight sets. Rhodes defeated tournament host Oglethorpe in three straight sets as well. Sophomores Anna Fitzgerald and  Lauren Young led the Lynx with 5 kills each versus Sewanee. In the team's final match of the day, outside hitter Claire Warren led the Lynx with 8 kills and 25 digs. Right Side Attacker Lexie Krall led the team in blocks with four. The Lynx dropped two tough matches at Oglethorpe.  The team lost to Centre in five sets and Birmingham Southern in five sets. Senior Libero Kayla McCrury became the all time career digs leader at Rhodes during the Centre match. McCrury finished the match with 25 digs, which put her at 2182 digs total for her career. During the BSC match she added another 16 digs, giving her 2198 for her career. 

Sewanee dropped four matches over the weekend, falling 3-0 to Rhodes, Hendrix 3-0,  Birmingham-Southern 3-0 and DePauw 3-0. Against Rhodes, Liz Boddiford and Tarver Shimek each had three kills to lead the Tigers. Erin Brahm contributed 11 assists and 11 digs in the match. In Saturday’s second match against Hendrix, Boddiford added 12 kills and Brahm tallied 21 assists and eight digs. Brahm also led the Tigers against Birmingham-Southern, recording 14 digs, nine assists, and two kills. Against DePauw, Boddiford paced the Tigers with four kills and one ace. Brahm contributed nine assists while Shimek had ten assists and two blocks. The Tigers are now 1-30 on the season and 0-14 in SCAC play. Sewanee will host Rust College on Wednesday evening.

No. 20 Southwestern played two non-conference matches in Sherman, Texas on Saturday. The Pirates squared off against East Texas Baptist in their first match. After dropping game one 22-25 Southwestern came back with a vengeance to dominate the final three 25-18, 25-7, 25-16. The University of Dallas was the next opponent for SU and the Pirates easily defeated the Crusaders, improving each game, 25-21, 25-19, 25-11. Southwestern currently sits at 25-5 on the season and 14-1 in SCAC action. They will be the #2 seed in the SCAC tournament to be held the first weekend in November. Before that, however, Southwestern will host their annual Halloween Tournament beginning Friday.

Trinity went 2-2 at the final regular season home tournament of 2010, defeating nationally-ranked UT-Dallas, but falling to two other ranked teams. The Tigers opened the tournament with a 3-0 win over Claremont, and then came back from an 0-2 deficit to beat 22nd-ranked UT-Dallas. On Saturday, Trinity was edged 3-2 by #17 New York University, and finished the weekend with a 3-1 loss to #16 UW-Eau Claire. Trinity will finish off the regular season on the road at the Carthage College Invitational. The Tigers will once again face off against tough competition, taking on #13 St. Thomas, #15 UW-Oshkosh, #14 Heidelberg, and #7 Carthage in the two-day event.

For the complete SCAC Spikes Weekly for Week 8, click here.