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DOWAGIAC — The Southwestern Michigan College volleyball team continued its dominance over Glen Oaks Community College with a 3-1 Michigan Community College Athletic Association Western Conference victory at the 1st Source Bank Fieldhouse Thursday night.

The Roadrunners defeated the Vikings for the third time this season, including twice in Western Conference action. Southwestern Michigan’s 25-22, 25-15, 22-25 and 25-12 win moved it into a third-place tie in the league standings with Kellogg Community College.

“This was a huge match win for us,” said SMC Coach Jenny Nate. “We needed to seal that win to slide into a tie for third place in the conference. Now, we will just keep focusing on the next match in front of us one point at a time as we work to climb the conference ladder. I was thrilled with the improvements we made this week — our defense did a great job with the short tip and cover ball pick-ups tonight, and we were able to transition those saves into kills.”

Niles sophomore Nikki Nate continued her outstanding season with 14 kills, 13 digs, 12 points and six blocks, while Buchanan freshman Josie West had 17 digs, 14 points and nine kills. Sophomore Bianca Hobson (Kalamazoo/Loy Norrix) finished the night with nine kills and four points, while Edwardsburg sophomore Shayla Shears had six kills, six points, four digs and a pair of blocks.

“Our hitters played aggressively and we had seven hitters who had positive hitting percentages,” Nate said. “Our attackers did a great job blocking which also resulted in a lot of key points. We know we have to control the tempo of the game to win, and we did that tonight. We will head back to practice tomorrow and prepare for Oakland Saturday.”

The Roadrunners are now 15-8 overall and 4-3 in the Western Conference.