HILLSBORO, Mo. - The College of Southern Idaho opened the Jefferson College Tournament Friday with a loss to #2 Miami-Dade 25-20, 25-16, 20-25, 25-17 but bounced back to beat Jefferson College 20-25, 20-25, 25-16, 25-20, 15-12 Friday, Iowa Western 25-17, 25-17, 18-25, 25-17 Saturday and #3 Missouri State West Plains 27-25, 25-22, 27-29, 25-22 Saturday.
With the wins, the Golden Eagles even their season record at 4-4.
Against Miami-Dade, Val Sarti-Cipriani finished with nine kills and five blocks. Middle blocker Annie Nikolnikova added five blocks and seven blocks. Janke Pretorius had a team-high 29 assists and 14 digs. Danea King posted 10 kills and Alazaysha Sopi had nine kills and nine digs. Chinaru Inoue led the Golden Eagles with four service aces along with 12 digs.
Against Jefferson, Pretorius was solid again with 40 assists and 13 digs. Nikolnikova had 13 kills and eight blocks and Sarti-Cipriani had 16 kills and five blocks. Inoeu had a team-high 23 digs and four aces.
On Saturday, Pretorius combined for 77 assists and 16 digs in the Golden Eagles two matches. Sopi had 31 kills and 27 digs. In the middle, Nikolnikova led the way against Iowa Western with 10 kills and three blocks and then King shined in the second match with 11 kills and six blocks. Sydney Hess was solid with 13 kills on the day.
CSI travels to Salt Lake CC Thursday for its next tournament.