Perrysburg, Ohio – The Monroe College volleyball team kept up its torrid start by improving to 9-0 overall after posting a 6-0 mark in the Owens Community College Tournament this past weekend in Perrysburg, Ohio.  The Mustangs secured wins over Oakland Community College, Schoolcraft College, Macomb College, Lansing College, Wallace State College and South Suburban College.
 
The tournament began on Friday and Monroe defeated Oakland in three sets.  All three sets were back and forth and the Mustangs rallied late in each set to secure the victory.  The scores were 25-22, 25-17 and 25-20.
 
The Mustangs fell behind 3-1, early on, but a 4-1 rally put them up, 5-4.  They pushed the lead up to five points when an Ashley Ramos serve was misplayed for an error and the Mustangs led, 19-14.  From there, the Raiders rallied to grab a 22-20 lead.  Monroe shut them out the rest of the way and scored the next five points to steal the set, 25-22.  Three attack errors by Oakland and a pair of Barbara Maximiano kills accounted for the five points.
 
Set two went to Monroe, 25-17.  The Mustangs grabbed a 3-1 lead and never looked back.  A Maximiano block put them up, 7-2.  The advantage slowly grew to eight points when Indira Rojas found Maximiano for a kill that capped a 7-0 run and made the score 20-12.  Monroe closed out the set with a Karen Souza kill.
 
The final set went to Monroe, 25-20.  They took a 5-0 lead courtesy of an Oakland error, blocks from Cristen Coryatt and Jourdan Hodge and a kill from Ashley Ramos.  The Raiders fought back to tie the score twice and even grabbed a 12-10 lead.  But trailing, 15-12, the Mustangs rallied with a 6-0 run to regain the lead at 18-15.  They scored six of the final eight points to win the match.
Maximiano had a match-high 15 kills while Indira Rojas posted a double-double with 24 assists and 13 digs.  Neysha Gonzalez had a match-best 14 digs.

The second match of the day saw the Mustangs beat Schoolcraft, 3-0.  The scores were 25-18, 25-17 and 25-15.  The Mustangs opened play with a 3-0 lead on kills from Taylor Robinson and Maximiano.  The Ocelots also had an error.  Monroe had a seven-point cushion three different times in the set and scored the final point on an error from Schoolcraft.
 
The two teams were tied on six different occasions in set two.  Finally, the Mustangs pulled away.  Even at 6-6, Monroe scored six unanswered tallies to jump ahead, 12-6.  The points came from a Coryatt kill, a Rojas block and four errors.  Monroe never looked back and won the set, 25-17.
 
The final set saw the score tied at 14-14 before the Mustangs used an 8-0 run to put the match away.   They took the final stanza, 25-15.  Rojas collected a match-best 25 digs, while Ramos led everyone with 13.  Neysha Gonzalez had three aces.