(Rochester, Minn.) Breanna Reisinger had 10 kills, including six in the third set, and Morgan Jack had 29 assists as the Butler County Community College volleyball team swept Rockland Community College on Thursday afternoon in the first round of the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III championships at the Rochester Regional Sports Center.
Aslyn Pry added seven kills, Abby Granato six and Morgan Frishkorn five for BC3 in the program’s first national championship tournament appearance since 2009.
The Pioneers moved to 17-1 with the 25-17, 25-22 and 25-16 victory and advanced to the championship quarterfinals.
“We got off to a slow start, and we looked a little tense. Fortunately we pulled it together. As the match progressed, we started to settle down and start making plays.”
Rob Snyder, BC3 volleyball coach
BC3 will face Minnesota State (19-5) at 7 p.m. Eastern Thursday.
The Pioneers are seeded sixth in the NJCAA Division III championships and Minnesota State, third.
BC3’s sweep of Rockland, of Suffern N.Y., was its 14th of the season.
The Pioneers trailed eight times in the first set against Rockland, the tournament’s 11th seed.
“We got off to a slow start, and we looked a little tense,” BC3 coach Rob Snyder said. “Fortunately we pulled it together. As the match progressed, we started to settle down and start making plays.”
BC3 rallied from a 9-8 first-set deficit with a 17-8 run capped by Claire Kile’s two kills and her shared block with Frishkorn.
“I think it gave the players on the floor and on the bench a lot of encouragement,” Kile said, “and really helped to propel us.”
BC3 never trailed in the second or third set.
“We were in our rhythm,” Snyder said.
Reisinger’s six kills in the third set helped the Pioneers to their best record since 2016.
“We obviously and clearly really wanted it,” Reisinger said. “My setter (Jack) and I had a really good flow and we figured out a weak spot on the other team. When she and I work together, once we understand what we need to do, we can get some points rolling through.”
“She really put it away in the last set,” Snyder said of Reisinger. “She really stepped up and finished the difficult balls when we needed to in that last match.”
BC3 is the NJCAA Division III Mid-Atlantic B District champion; Rockland, the Northeast B District champion and Minnesota State, the Northeast Plains District A champion.
Minnesota State had a first-round bye.
BC3 finished fifth in the NJCAA Division III championships 2002 and sixth in 2009.
Players on a BC3 team that recorded the program’s 12th winning season in a row are Logan Barnhart, setter, Moniteau; Kylee Bender, defense, Knoch; Riley Danner, defense, Knoch; Frishkorn, opposite hitter, Knoch; Granato, outside hitter, Mohawk; Jack, Knoch; Kile, middle hitter, Harvest Baptist; Pry, middle hitter, Moniteau; Madison Raypush, outside hitter, Knoch; Reisinger, outside hitter, Lincoln, Ellwood City; Josie Rupp, outside hitter, Redbank Valley; and Lainey Tobolewski, libero, Seneca Valley.