ARNOLD, MD – The Anne Arundel Community College volleyball team has earned the third seed in the 2019 Region XX Division III Championships, it was announced earlier this week. The Riverhawks will face second seed CCAC in an 11 am semifinal match Saturday, October 26th, at Butler County Community College.
The BC3 Pioneers earned the top seed with a 5-0 divisional in-region record. CCAC (3-2) won the head-to-head tiebreaker against AACC (3-2) and Howard (3-2) to earn the second seed. AACC then won the remaining tiebreaker over Howard with a head-to-head victory.
Penn Highlands (1-4) took the fifth seed and will play fourth seed Howard on Friday, October 25th at 6 pm. The winner of that match will face reigning region champion Butler in the semifinals.
Semifinal winners will advance to the 2:30 pm championship match. If needed, Region XX will host a 5 pm consolation match.
Under first year head coach Tatiana Cooper, the Riverhawks have posted the most wins since 2011 when AACC finished 15-6. Offensively they are led by freshman outside hitter Karen Bautista Carmona, who has recorded double-digit kills in six matches this season en route to a 2.41 kills per set average. Freshman Grace Lindemann stepped into the starting setter spot, recording 4.20 assists per set, recording a season-high 24 assists in a three-set win over Chesapeake on September 3rd.
Freshman middle blocker Taliyah Johnson has come alive in the second half of the season, recently recording a career-high 11 kills in a relief appearance at Penn Highlands on October 10th. Joining Johnson up front, freshman Alle Forbes leads the team in hit percentage at .257 while averaging 1.37 kills per set. She recorded a career-high nine kills in a 3-0 win over Garrett College on October 4th.
Defensively, sophomore libero Tara Gabrielsen leads the Riverhawks with 3.30 digs per set, posting eight double-digit efforts on the year highlighted by 23 against Howard on September 14th. Sylvia Frye has displayed her all-around talents with 194 digs (2.98/set) to complement the Riverhawks' top serve numbers at 58 aces (0.89/set) – almost double her total from her freshman campaign.
The Riverhawks will meet CCAC for the second time in two weeks after dropping their regular-season match against the Wild Cats in a tri-match at Howard on October 12th. In two meetings with defending champion BC3, AACC fell 3-0 and 3-1. Anne Arundel defeated Howard twice, winning both, 3-1, and also defeated Penn Highlands by a 3-1 score.
AACC advanced to the Region XX Championship game last season with a 3-0 win over Penn Highlands, and fell to BC3 in the title tilt, 3-1, before dropping a pair of games at the District I/J Tournament.
Anne Arundel plays one final regular-season match, traveling to Division II Montgomery on Thursday, October 24th for a 6 pm start.