Posted: Oct 15, 2022
Tops Take Down Clark State, 3-0
Avenging an early season 3-2 loss to the Eagles, the Tops came out on fire and stayed that way sweeping Clark, 3-0 for their 7th win of the season (7-9) and moving them to 5-6 in the OCCAC and closer to an NJCAA Region XII playoff berth!
Freshman and libero, Mallory Rice, carried the Cuyahoga Community College
Triceratops to victories in three straights sets to secure the win against the Clark State Community College
Eagles.
The last time the Triceratops and Eagles met, the Eagles took the Triceratops to five sets
and won 15-13. The next time around, the Triceratops didn't want to play it close and came out
ready to end the match fast. The Triceratops won the first set 25-20. They continued their
success in the second set by the score of 25-23. The Triceratops took care of business in the third set with a 25-18 vcitory.
"It feels great, we struggled but played together and usually some people will be off and
some people will be on. Like today, I feel we were all on and really dominated together."
Triceratops freshman and libero Mallory Rice, on having an exciting and dominant win, how
does the team feel.
"We made sure to come in this ready to go and get a win since we had lost to Clark State
last time, we saw them." Cuyahoga Community College head coach, Tionne El-Amin on what
her team's strategy was coming into this game. "The team did a great job of coming in and doing
their part and securing the win."
Clark State head coach, Angie Arthur on how she encourages her team after a tough loss.
"It's a tough question, especially because of this loss, this loss was due to lack of effort. My
speech wasn't as encouraging this time. I think I quoted hard work beats talent when talent
doesn't work hard and that's what I kind of felt like tonight. I think Cuyahoga's a talented team,
but I think we have a better talented team and I think if we worked harder, we would have won. I
think I'll just try to tell them to think about that and think about how they have to play every ball.
They can't put too much thought on the negative and focus on the positive and let it go."
"I think our biggest lesson would be to never go into a game with a big head. We went in
confident because we won against Tri-C when we played them the first time in Springfield."
Clark State's sophomore, captain, and middle hitter, Lindsey Brayton, on what lesson their team
learned that they can improve on in the future. "But at the end of the day, they worked harder
and by the time we started to click, it was too late. Just need to go into every game with a clean
slate and play your hardest no matter what you think the outcome will be."
--contributed by Ryan Bernstein, student writer