Emily Perkins had a match-high 19 kills to lead No. 14 Colorado College to a 25-23, 25-23, 20-25, 25-23 victory over No. 15 Trinity University on Saturday afternoon at Reid Gymnasium.
CC improved to 25-3 overall and wrapped up second place in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference standings with a 12-2 league record.
Colorado College also extended its home-court winning streak to 21 matches and has now won 42 out of 46 sets at Reid Gymnasium in 2009.
Perkins completed her 12th double-double of the season and 43rd of her career with 15 digs, and she also had a hand in three blocked shots. Laura Goldsmith posted her fifth double-double of the season with 14 kills and 15 digs.
Aly Hazelwood and Taylor Malloy led the Trinity attack with nine kills apiece. Ginger Haley had seven kills and eight blocked shots.
TU finished with 15 blocks, the most by a CC opponent this season.
The match was as every bit as close as the points would indicate. Over the course of four sets, there were 34 ties and 18 lead changes, and there was just a one-point difference in the total set scores for the entire contest.
Goldsmith had three kills as Colorado College jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the first set, but Trinity battled back to tie the set at 13-13. TU pulled ahead 22-19, but CC used a 6-2 run to pull ahead and closed out the set on a kill by Meredith Ballard.
Neither team lade by more than a point in the second set until Trinity built a 17-13 advantage. Perkins had three kills to ignite a 9-3 run which gave CC a 22-20 lead, and after a pair of hitting errors allowed TU to tie the set, Colorado College used kills by Sarah Schmoker, Amy Schornack and Ballard to wrap up the set.
Trinity cut its deficit in half in the third set thanks in part to four blocks from senior middle blocker Ginger Haley. With the score tied at 18-18, TU went on an 8-3 run that included two kills and an ace from Aly Hazelwood.
Trinity carried the momentum into the fourth set, sprinting to an early 8-3 lead. Goldsmith got CC back into the match, serving six consecutive points that included a pair of aces. Neither team led by more than two points until Colorado College used a 5-2 run to build a 21-18 lead.
The teams traded side outs until Ali Hazelwood had back-to-back kills to pull TU to within 24-23, but with the match on the line, CC turned to its most potent offensive threat and Perkins delivered the kill that sealed the victory.
Ballard set the school record for hitting percentage in a single match to lead the Tigers to a 25-9, 25-12, 25-10 victory over Sewanee in CC's first match of the day. She connected for 13 kills on 14 attacks without an error for a .929 clip. All-American Cathy Costello set the previous mark of .917 on Sept. 11, 1997 against Washburn College when she recorded 11 kills on 12 swings.
Colorado College hit a season-best .494 as a team.
The Tigers play host to their final regular-season tournament of the year next weekend when Chapman University, Millikin University and UC Santa Cruz visit Colorado College for the Spike It Up Classic.
